Harry Potter and the Winds of Change
by MacyBearLovesJONAS
Summary: Harry comes to Hogwarts armed with knowledge that could, and does change everything. Is the new smarter and more powerful Harry, along with his friends, going to be able to defeat not one but two dark lords? H/Hr N/L Co-authored by ElizabethAnneSoph
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hi there! This is a new HP fic that is co-written by Me, MacyBearLovesJONAS and ElizabethAnneSoph... This is gonna be strictly Harry/Hermione, with a fair bit of Dumbledore and Weasley bashing. Right now, I am gonna be writing some of the chapters in the beginning and EAS is gonna step in with more chapters down the line. **_

_**I would like to thank my co-author and beta, ElizabethAnneSoph for being so patient with me and taking the time out of her busy exam schedule to halp me with this... Love you, thank you so much.**_

_**Please review your thoughts and ideas, we welcome all sorts of feedback... :)**_

* * *

**Chapter 01**

A young eleven year old boy, with messy black hair and bright green eyes hidden behind old fashioned round glasses, stared at the mountain of shiny wrapped boxes piled high about four feet in front of him. There were beautifully wrapped boxes of all shapes and sizes in the pile and the boy was understandably curious as to their contents. Even though there was the firmly locked cupboard door separating him from the presents that were piled high onto the dining table, the boy couldn't help but wonder if he would ever be getting anything similar in his lifetime.

His musings were however cut short when he heard noises that could've easily been mistaken for a horde of rampaging elephants. But the boy wasn't very worried... he'd been in the house long enough to know that it wasn't a horde of elephants going on a rampage... just a single baby whale which also went by the name of Dudley Dursley - the spoiled, single child of Vernon and Petunia Dursley and cousin to one Harry Potter.

Harry had never had any presents given to him in the ten and three quarter years of his life. But that didn't stop the young man from being curious about getting all those presents. By the sound of it, Dudley had just woken up and was running... or should we say waddling down the stairs, eager to open his birthday presents. Harry's cupboard door was opened with a bang as his aunt stretched a bony claw... er hand inside and pulled him out by the scruff of his neck

"Come on boy!... It's my Dudder's birthday today and I want him to have a perfect day... Now get cooking!..."

After that, it had been a typical day for Harry... cooking dozens of rashers of bacon, half a dozen eggs, a dozen sausages and making toast from almost a whole loaf of bread. Of course, after this was the two pots of tea - one pot of weak tea for Uncle Vernon, a pot of strong tea for Aunt Petunia and a whole jug of Chocolate milk for Dudley. While the Dursleys gorged themselves on breakfast made by Harry, the boy himself had to sate his hanger by eating just two slices of unbuttered bread and the trimmings of the bacon.

All the while, Harry's attention was on the mountain of presents and it was because of this that he almost completely overlooked the single thick envelope that stuck out like a sore thumb among the other letters and cards in the morning mail that he'd been sent to fetch. It was made of thick paper, almost like a card sheet, and was bigger than regulation size. Also, the writing on it was of an odd kind, flowing and almost calligraphic in nature. But there was one thing that set it apart from anything other piece of mail that had ever entered the Dursley residence. This one, was addressed to Harry Potter.

The first thing that hit the young boy's mind was that his cousin was probably playing a trick on him. Especially because Harry, being an intelligent boy, knew that letters which were sent via the mail were never addressed like this. The address on the envelope he held was almost absurd in it's nature. It had no pin code and mentioned the cupboard under the stairs. So automatically, Harry had thought that it was a prank being pulled on him by his cousin to celebrate Dudley's birthday by bullying him once again.

Through the years of growing up with Dudley and his gang of bullies around, Harry had become quite adept at escaping beatings. Mainly, he'd come to understand that while he might not be able to escape the bullying and the beatings completely, he could always outwit the thickheaded idiots and take away as many opportunities of bullying or beating him up. Back talk or anything close to sounding smart would only get him beaten up even more. But if he wasn't around or visible, they couldn't bully him. This in mind, Harry had started creating as many opportunities as he could to be invisible to his cousin and his friends, even if it meant he had to spend the day cleaning the garage or unblocking the gutters for Aunt Petunia.

Seeing as he was close to the dining room, Harry hurriedly stuffed the letter inside his shirt, the garment big enough to hide anything that he might want to, as it had once belonged to Dudley when the young whale had only been the size of a baby elephant. Harry smirked to himself, thinking that for once, Dudley would be unable to bully him with anything because he wouldn't even know where the letter had gone.

Once he'd deposited the pile of letters and cards on the dining table next to Uncle Vernon, Harry set about cleaning up, washing and drying the dirty dishes and pans used for cooking before his Aunt got it into her head that he was slacking and hit him again. There was some little trouble over the number of the gifts on the table, (36 not being deemed a big enough number) but a disaster had been averted by Vernon's assurances that they would buy their Dudders two more gifts when they visited the zoo with his friend Piers that day. Without even turning from his washing, Harry knew that he was being glared at by his uncle as the obese man contemplated just what to do with the bane of his life.

* * *

Ever since the blasted son of his wife's slut sister was dropped off on his doorstep, all Vernon Dursley had ever faced was bad luck and more bad luck. Just having the freak around was messing up his life and Vernon knew that he would dearly like to get rid of one Harry Potter as quickly as he could, if he had the freedom to do so. Alas, they were under some sort of binding oath, because his wife, clever as she was most of the time, had at one time stupidly agreed to take him in, having been threatened by a tall bearded man in outlandish robes, who had told them of terrible consequences for them if they refused to take Harry in. But that didn't mean he had to like the boy... he hated him in fact. A freak like him didn't deserve to exist in the world and if he could, Vernon would get rid of the boy in any way he could.

But right now, Vernon had to figure out a way to keep the boy out of trouble as he planned his precious Dudley's eleventh birthday. Even as he was contemplating locking the boy up before they left, his wife solved his problem by giving the freak so much work that he couldn't possibly get himself... or them in any trouble, even if he wanted to. Satisfied with the plan, Vernon, Petunia and Dudley left Privet Drive with Piers, having locked Harry inside the house with a long list of chores. Keeping the boy busy cleaning toilets, clearing out the attic and mowing the lawn would keep him busy till the time they got back. And there was always the pleasure of punishing him if any of the chores didn't get done to his satisfaction when they got back.

* * *

Inside the Dursley residence, Harry sighed as he watched the his relatives go off to the zoo. Though he'd always wanted to visit the zoo, it was a sigh of relief he expelled as they went out of sight. They'd given the boy an insane list of chores, accompanied with an even longer list of things he couldn't do. Prominently featured on the list was everything except breathing... he couldn't sit on any of the furniture, he couldn't eat or drink anything other than what was his ration, he couldn't watch TV and he definitely couldn't step foot into Dudley's room. But it was infinitely preferable to being in Piers' and Dudley's company all day.

Turning, the boy slid down to sit with his back against the front door, his thoughts again wandering to the topic that they usually did to, whenever he was alone... his family. And by that he never meant the Dursleys. He was related to them by blood... Petunia Dursley was his mother's sister, but that didn't make them his family. His family, in his mind comprised of James and Lily Potter... and no one else. Even though he'd been given a horrible story about his parents by his uncle and aunt, he was inclined not to believe them.

Harry was an intelligent boy and he'd noticed right from the beginning that while his uncle and aunt obviously hated his parents, they seemed to dislike them because they were jealous... like his parents had something that the Dursleys had always wanted but never could have. So of course, Harry didn't believe in their story of his father having been a drunkard and ne'er do well and his mother having been an easy woman... In fact, he was inclined to believe quite the opposite. Lily and James Potter must've been special people, for Vernon and Petunia Dursley to dislike them so much. And that, while making Harry feel better about his own origins, also gave him more questions than he could answer.

The young man had been trying for years to figure out just what had happened in his parents lives that had led to his being abandoned so cruelly. Ideas ranged from their having been top secret government spies to superheroes... but nothing ever made sense enough for the practical Harry to accept. But that didn't mean he didn't like to think about it... over the years, this had become his standard topic of thought whenever he was alone. He would muse about his parents identities, wonder about what they might've looked like and thought about what they might've been facing that had led to their dying and his being left on his aunt and uncle's doorstep with nothing more than a note that created more questions than it explained.

As Harry slid down into a slump against the door, he could feel something sticking into him under the shirt. Pulling it up, the boy found the envelope he'd hastily stuffed inside and having nothing better to do, turned it around and took a good look at it.

It was made of thick card paper, almost yellow, as if it was made from the parchments of old times. The writing was in green ink, the address reading - Harry Potter, Cupboard under the stairs, No. 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Obviously, whoever had written it knew of his living conditions. Harry knew from his time in school that almost all the kids his age had their own rooms. No one he knew did chores like him or wore such old and unfitting hand-me-downs... nor did they have to live in a cupboard. But there was almost nothing he could do about it, having no where else he could go and no money to do anything with.

Returning his attention to the letter, he turned it over to find an old fashioned wax seal. This startled him because this here, was proof that Dudley Dursley hadn't sent this envelope. Dudley would never have the cleverness or the patience for details like this... nor did anyone else in his gang. This letter had been sent to him by someone else, and whoever it was, knew of his life and had done nothing to help him in any way. The temptation to rip the letter up, imagining himself ripping up the person who sent it alongwith it, was enormous, but Harry made himself wait. If someone had gone through the trouble of writing to him and sending him a letter, it would be better he read it before he tore it up.

Curiosity mounting, Harry put his fingers under the flap and broke the seal, which seemed to contain a calligraphic 'H' surrounded by details that were a bit too small to see. Inside, were two sheets of thick paper, these ones written in a slightly more regular black ink. But the contents were anything but regular.

The letter, which was addressed to him too, went like this

_**Dear Mr. Harry Potter,**_

_**We are glad to inform you that you have been admitted to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the premier school for Magic in England. Please sign the attached form to confirm your acceptance. Term starts on the 1st of September. You will find a list of essential school supplies at the end of this letter, please make sure you purchase all of them from Diagon Alley.**_

_**Yours Sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall**_

_**Deputy Head Mistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**_

It went on to describe a list of things just too weird for anyone to have written down as a prank... please things like wands, potions kit and pewter cauldrons... were so much out of the imagination of a normal person that Harry was in a quandary. He had no idea what to make of it. The temptation to tear the letter to pieces had mounted after reading the first line of the letter, but the simple business-like nature of it, combined with the elaborateness of thought behind it if it was indeed a prank, made Harry stop and think about it.

In a fit of rebelliousness, Harry got up, went to the writing desk in the living room and pulling out a pen from it, signed off his name with a flourish at the bottom of the page, in the space provided. It gave him a real shock when the form folded itself and disappeared with a loud 'pop'. For almost a whole minute, the boy didn't move, his eyes stuck to the spot where the second sheet of paper from the letter had been just a few moments ago. Shaken, but still curious, Harry stared at the letter again, just in time to find the wording change on it. Now it read

_**Dear Mr. Harry Potter,**_

_**We are glad that you have accepted to attend the best school for Magic in the country. We will be looking forward to seeing you at Hogwarts on September 1st for the start of term feast and house sorting. A representative of the school will get in touch with you soon to give you an introduction to the world of Magic and its ways.**_

_**Yours Sincerely**_

_**Minerva McGonagall**_

_**Deputy Head Mistress, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry**_

The list below the changed letter remained the same though, giving Harry to believe some of whatever was happening around him. Still unable to wrap his head around the idea of magic and his being admitted to a school he hadn't even known of, Harry Potter was one confused and astonished young man who had no idea just what he'd started when he'd signed the admission letter to Hogwarts.

* * *

On a small, worn and almost battered looking book in an unnoticed room in the depths of the Ministry of Magic and on a register in Hogwarts, a name appeared in golden letters, which would change the way the Wizarding world thought in a few years... the name of Harry James Potter.

It was one of the few names in the Hogwarts register, that appeared in gold ink, unlike most names that made their way into it in black ink. Albus Dumbledore, the current headmaster of Hogwarts and the wizard regarded as the most powerful in the world, should've paid attention to this and understood the implications of it sooner that he did.

In the book in the Ministry, beside it another name appeared, that of a young woman who would grow to be the one person the boy in question trusted beyond everyone else... the one person who anchored him to reality... the one girl who he would do anything for... the one girl who would do anything for him. The name that appeared beside Harry's was to be the one witch who would in time become his soul mate.

* * *

In the main offices of Gringotts, in Switzerland, the head of the Goblins, an old warrior Goblin named Ragnok, was overseeing some of the most important accounts that Gringotts held, when his secretary and right hand goblin, Tarnoc gave him news that he had waited almost eleven years to hear. The smile blooming on the old goblin's face was frightening as he rubbed his hands together in suppressed glee, nodding his head at an unseen opponent. He now had information about the one factor that could change the wizarding world... Harry Potter was going to be part of the wizarding world once more.

The goblins were a magical race... and they had the limitations of one. No goblin could be seen or heard by any witch or wizard until they had been introduced to the magical world. So any muggle born or muggle raised witch or wizard had no idea of goblins and other magical races like elves, centaurs, dragons and the like, till they were introduced to the Wizarding world by someone from the magical world... usually from the Ministry or Hogwarts. So, no goblin had been able to contact Harry Potter till now about the blatant misdeeds surrounding his life and the daylight robbery one headmaster seemed to be committing. Sitting there, pretending to overlook the atrocities that took place under their noses, having to let a man steal from one of their favored clients had taken a lot of patience... something goblins weren't really known for.

But now that Harry had signed his admission form to Hogwarts, he could be contacted and would have to be informed as quickly as possible of the realities of his life, the truth about the condition of the wizarding world and most importantly, the Potter knowledge vaults had to be handed over to him. The time had come... Ragnok smiled his gruesome smile again as he thought of just how much power one eleven year held in his oblivious hands and the fact that he, the current head of the goblin nation held it within his power to let the boy know of his true heritage.

* * *

_**A/N: So there it is... the first chapter of "HP and the Winds of Change" is done.**_

_**don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas for the fic... we would love to hear from you and try to incorporate your ideas if we can. So don't hesitate to click that blue button and tell us what you thought**_

_**Keep reading, reviewing and stay tuned for the next chapter**_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB and EAS**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Hi there!... We're back with the second chapter of this fic... We'd like to thank our readers for the reviews and ideas. We love hearing from you and appreciate all sorts of feedback and comments... So please, don't hesitate to click the blue button if you have anything to say... anything at all... :)**_

_**So without further ado, here's**_

* * *

**Chapter 2**

When Harry signed the form detailing his acceptance to Hogwarts, he didn't know what he had been expecting... but certainly not what happened afterwards. He'd just been sitting there on the floor of the Dursley's living room, still staring at the letter on which the text had changed, the Dursley's had come back. Hearing their car pull up into the garage again, Harry hurriedly stuffed the letter under his shirt again and ran up the stairs and into the bathrooms, to make it at least look as if he had already started on their list of chores.

He could hear Dudley complaining about something all the way, whining as he stomped up the stairs and back down a couple of minutes later. Vernon Dursley's placating baritone also sounded up and Harry turned right at the moment his aunt's suspicious head popped into the bathroom to check up on him. Trying not to look too cheeky, Harry gave her a timid smile, which resulted in a sniff of disdain from her... but she left him in peace after that. Harry heaved a sigh of relief at almost but not quite being caught shirking his chores and put the brush that he held in his hands, down.

All the sounds of the Dursley's getting ready to leave once again floated upstairs in about half a minute and Harry was hard pressed not to smile in relief. But this time, he had forgotten that he was Harry Potter and nothing... absolutely nothing seemed to come easy to him. Because right at the moment when Dudley, who had apparently forced them to come back home because he wasn't going to the zoo without his new video game, Vernon and Petunia Dursley were about to step out again, they and the whole of the neighborhood with them, heard the loud roar of a motorbike. Harry didn't know what the noise was from but something told him it involved him and the strange letter that he'd gotten. And he just knew that things were going to go south very, very soon.

The loud roaring sounds of a motorcycle engine only got progressively louder as seconds ticked by and Harry, unable to withstand his curiosity anymore, turned off the taps in the bathroom and made his way downstairs. Suffice to say, neither he, nor any of the Dursleys had ever thought they would see the sight they were seeing that day. Right in the middle of the morning, bold as could be, a big, motorcycle, ridden by a man bigger than you could imagine, came flying into Privet Drive... that's right. Flying. In the daytime.

As the bike came to a slow halt in front of number 4, it was all Harry could do to remain in his place. He could almost feel the punches and kicks that would be the result of this strange visit from an even stranger... person. Because everyone in the Dursley family knew that if anything strange and out of the ordinary happened around them, it was all due to Harry and his freakishness. Dudley whimpered from behind his father's bulk, which he was currently using as a shield and Harry could see Vernon desperately trying to look intimidating and failing miserably. Strangely, there was no reaction from his aunt... though the reason for that was obvious soon... she'd quietly and unobtrusively, fainted at the sight of the eight foot tall, hefty, bearded giant of a man that was currently filling their doorway.

Five minutes later... but those five minutes had felt like fifty, Harry Potter was the uncomfortable focus of three pairs of eyes, each showing very different emotions. Aunt Petunia was still out for the count, her unconscious self laid on the couch carefully by the giant that had visited them. Vernon Dursley looked ready to glare him to death, Dudley looked almost... envious but that could be because he had a cake in his hand at that moment and Dudley didn't, and the huge man standing in the living room, his head knocking over the chandelier in the ceiling, was looking at him expectantly. Harry would've loved to say that he had no idea how he managed to end up in a situation such as this, but sadly, the boy knew exactly what he had done... he'd signed a letter.

* * *

As soon as the man, if he could be called that, had stepped foot onto their driveway, Vernon and Dudley had turned to glare at him, as if it was his fault that this was happening to them... that if anything weird happened, it had to be his fault. Obviously, Harry had no idea what was going on and stood mutely to one side as the giant of a man strode up the Dursley's driveway in two humongous strides. Bending slightly to make sure he fit into their doorway, the bearded man gingerly stepped into the entryway of Number 4, Privet Drive, only to find the whole family looking at him with silent looks of horror.

Of course, the first people he saw, were Vernon Dursley, with Dudley sort of trying to hide behind his father. Mistaking the baby whale for Harry, was a mistake only someone who knew neither, could commit. But seeing as Harry had never seen this person, he figured he could forgive the man for his mistake.

"Oh... there ye are Harry... Ye're lookin'... healthy. Quite a bit bigger around the middle now than when I last saw ye... heh?" he said, patting his own ample mid portion

The deep voice of the man was exactly what one expected from one of his dimensions and it made none of the humans present feel any better about having a giant in their home. Harry noticed though that while the giant person looked and sounded fierce, his eyes were smiling, he seemed eager to meet Harry and somehow, managed to make Harry feel safe. Though Dudley was still shaking from fear, he managed to understand that the monster of a man in front of him was looking for someone else... the someone that stood off in one corner.

"I...I..I am not Harry..."

"Well of course ye're not... I knew that already..."

Feeling as if his luck, which had never been all that lucky to him, was finally going to run out, Harry stepped out from the shadows that had been concealing him.

"I am..."

"Well of course ye are... I knew right from the beginnin... ye look like James when he started Hogwarts but ye have Lily's eyes. Come on then... we need tuh get goin if we're gonna be at the Leaky Cauldron in time for lunch"

"I'm sorry but who are you?"

It was as if the giant man hadn't been expecting to hear that from the young boy, he turned a bit quickly and in the process, knocked over a vase with his elbow. As the shattering sound echoed around the silent room, Harry could hear a recently awakened Petunia moan a little and sink into unconsciousness again.

Looking a bit sheepish, the giant turned again

"Sorry 'bout that... I'll fix it right away.."

Saying so, he took out a pink umbrella from his moleskin coat and twitched it in the direction of the vase first, and then again in the direction of Aunt Petunia. The broken vase repairing itself was witnessed only by Harry, who was standing nearest to the giant. The Dursleys were quite involved in Petunia's awakening, but Harry and the giant, were involved in a conversation of their own

"Blimey Harry... ye don' remember me?"

"I am sorry... but I've never seen you before. I think I would remember if you did"

"Of course ye don't... the last time ye saw me, ye were a wee baby... I was the one who brought ye here at Professor Dumbledore's request... It was the night that uh... that uh..."

"Professor who?"

"Professor Dumbledore of course!... Who else?... The greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever seen."

Harry felt slightly panicky and overwhelmed at hearing the name of the wizarding school. It brought to him that he really hadn't imagined whatever had happened with the letter because the letter had been the first time he'd heard the name 'Hogwarts' and here was this giant man telling him about the headmaster there...a professor Dumble-whatever.

"Oh... I am sorry I don't recognize you... who are you?"

"I am Rubeus Hagrid... Groundskeeper at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry... the best school for magic in the whole world"

This was said with such obvious pride and certainty, almost as if Rubeus Hagrid was a walking, talking eight foot tall advertisement for the magic school, that the young man started to feel a bit better at having signed the letter. As concerns about the school and his future started to calm down, something that Hagrid had said before struck the boy...

"Hagrid... if you don't mind me asking... you said the last time I saw you was when I was a baby... When was it?"

Harry couldn't help himself asking... it was almost as if he knew what the answer was going to be but couldn't stop himself from asking the question

"When ye... When yer pa... nuh... can't say that... when ye..um... got the um... that scar"

Hagrid finished that sentence in an almost whisper... or as much as a giant could whisper. And Harry found himself shaking uncontrollably, but couldn't stop the words from falling out of his mouth

"The night of my parent's accident... you were there?"

If there was one part of his question that he hadn't expected the giant to take notice of, it had been the part about the accident. Vernon and Petunia Dursley had told Harry about his parents death in a car accident, and while Harry hadn't wanted to believe them about anything related to his parents, he didn't have any other choice open to him. But now, as he noticed the tall person in front of him bristle at the very thought of it, Harry started to have second thoughts about believing most of what he had been told. If it hadn't been for that obviously weird letter before, Harry might've had difficulty in believing anything that was happening now. But after seeing the form in the letter fold itself and disappear and the contents of the letter change in front of his eyes, Harry's mind was open to things it might not have been before.

"Accident!... Accident!... James and Lily Potter dying in a measly car accident!... Who has been feeding ye this codswallop?... Tell me this moment... Was it this muggle here?"

"What's a muggle Hagrid?"

The innocent question from the young man in front of him diffused the half-giant's anger in a way nothing else could have. It dawned on Hagrid that while the whole of the magical world had been singing praises of the boy-who-lived, the boy himself didn't even know of the existence of the world he'd originally come from. This was a situation no one could have foreseen and definitely a situation that none of them in the wizarding world were ready for. He would need to report to Professor Dumbledore as quickly as possible about this but first, he needed to get Harry out of this godforsaken place

"Well... a muggle is a person who can't do magic Harry..."

"So... from the way you said muggle, and from the letter I got, I assume I'm not one"

This was said so hesitantly, that if he could bend without the fear of breaking something else, Hagrid would've hugged the boy

"Of course yer not. Ye're one of the most famous wizards of yer time Harry... Yer place at Hogwarts has been ready since ye were born. Ah! That reminds me... we're gettin late Harry... Come on, we'd better get goin... lots to do"

Before either Harry or Hagrid could move even a bit, they heard Vernon Dursley for the first time since the half-giant had decided to visit.

"I am not sending the freak to a school of freaks... I will not be paying for that..."

Though he'd tried to make his voice sound all tough and fierce, all it managed to do was sound petulant and whiny. It didn't help that calling Hogwarts a school of freaks had made Hagrid angry. Harry could see the Dursley family literally jumping in place as Hagrid roared in anger

"Hogwarts is NOT a school of freaks!... It is the best school for Magic in the world you great big prune... and ye don't have tuh spend a single knut tuh send James and Lily Potter's son there... It has been decided that he would go tuh Hogwarts and study under Professor Dumbledore since the day he was born and there is nothing a muggle like ye can do about that. Come Harry..."

"Where are we going? The school starts only on the first of September doesn't it? And do I need to bring along anything?"

Hagrid seemed stumped for a minute before he nodded his head and said

"Ye'd better pack up whatever ye want n bring it with ye... I'm not sure I wanna bring ye back here again... Once professor Dumbledore comes to know of what's bin happenin' ere Harry, he'll make sure everythin' alright. Okay?... Now run along n get packed... I'll wait for ye outside"

It was a good thing that Hagrid didn't look back... or he would've seen the excited Harry run to a small cupboard under the stairs. Hagrid was what you'd call a gentle giant... or a half-giant. He was very good at doing a lot of things... but cleverness and observation were attributes that had never been his. Had it been anyone else who'd come to take Harry Potter to the wizarding world, they would've noticed that he was made to live in a cupboard. They would've known at a glance that he was mistreated, malnourished and had no knowledge of the magical world.

It should've been either Professor McGonagall or Professor Dumbledore himself who should've come to introduce Harry Potter to the wizarding world, as they had the knowledge of the extent of his ignorance regarding the world he was from. Had it been Minerva McGonagall, she would've seen and understood Harry's condition, performed medical diagnostic charms and handed him over to Poppy Pomfrey as soon as possible. But Hagrid had been sent in her stead, and he neither noticed enough to ask the right questions nor was he clever enough to understand the situation by himself. And so the situation remained as Harry came out of the Number 4, Privet Drive, for what he hoped was the last time, with a small bundle of things wrapped in an old, threadbare, blue baby blanket.

In under a minute, the young boy was perched on the small portion of the seat that remained after Hagrid had sat his bulk onto the motorbike, and they were on their way once more, with the typical loud roaring associated with motorbikes of that kind. Only, this one flew... and for the first time in his life... or at least the first time that he remembered, Harry experienced flying. And promptly fell in love.

* * *

Professor McGonagall was not feeling comfortable. And it had absolutely nothing to do with the family she was now sitting in front of, sipping tea. They were a muggle family that she had come to introduce to the magical world because their daughter was a first generation witch. She could see right from the first moment that this young lady, was going to be one of the most talented children studying under her at Hogwarts... that is, if she could convince the parents to send the child to them. Had they been magical folk, just telling them that Albus was the headmaster would suffice... but they were muggles. Non-magicals, she corrected herself in her mind, and Albus Dumbledore was nothing but a name to them.

For the non-magical folk, the notion of sending their children to some magical school that they couldn't see, in a magical world they couldn't understand, to learn magic that they couldn't see being performed till the children finished schooling, was a very difficult decision. Most mundanes or non-magical folk gave in because they understood that their child was different, and needed special education, that they hoped Hogwarts could provide. They didn't seem to have any other options either.

But this family was slightly different. Rather than their objection being a school they couldn't see or visit, the father's objection was that they would have to send their daughter away. The child herself was extremely intelligent and did astonishingly well in her mundane schooling, standing first in the whole of the country in all her years till now. But Minerva could also see that the young lady had faced quite a difficult childhood, facing up to a lot of bullying... something she might very well have to face again when she came to Hogwarts. Minerva sighed internally... she was not in a good mood today. And it was all because of one Albus Dumbledore.

While Minerva McGonagall believed and respected the headmaster more than anyone else, she also thought that he was taking on too much for one single person. Being the headmaster of a magical school was in itself a full time job and Albus had insisted on holding both the positions of Headmaster of Hogwarts and being the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW. While Dumbledore was a great man and an even greater wizard, Minerva knew that ego, was one of his shortfalls. He failed to understand most of the times, that he was making a mistake and even when someone was pointing it out to him, Albus never listened. And that was what was eating at her now.

Minerva knew what placing Harry Potter with those muggles would result in. She had known eleven years ago and warned Albus of it... but he'd as usual not listened. And this time too, eleven years later, when she'd wanted to visit the young man and introduce him to the wizarding world in a manner that might not shock him, Albus had denied her request, ordering her to take care of the other children and telling her that he would take care of it himself. The deputy head would've been more calm about the situation had she not witnessed Dumbledore talking to Hagrid, the half-giant about retrieving Mr. Potter. Sending someone like Hagrid would be the worst thing Albus could do to Mr. Potter and Minerva knew that no matter what she or anyone else said on the matter now, he wouldn't change his mind.

The Scottish deputy head was still worrying about the situation in her head when she turned to look at the happy eleven year old girl sitting in front of her. The young lady with masses of curly brown hair and slightly large teeth, was swinging her legs in happiness as she looked at her parents who had just given her permission to attend the school she had wanted to, ever since she had heard about herself being magical.

"We agree to send our daughter to Hogwarts Professor McGonagall... What do we have to do to get her enrolled?"

Snapping out of her thoughts, Minerva pulled an envelope out of her pocket and handed it to the tall, brown haired man

"Please have your daughter sign the form Mr. Granger... and you can co-sign at the bottom. I will leave some brochures and a couple of books on the wizarding world for your daughter so that she and you can familiarize yourself with the world she will be stepping into in a few months. This is not the usual practice, but I try to extend this support to the families of all the muggle-borns so that they may adjust better to the wizarding world... Besides, I am already sure that Miss. Granger is going to be a very special addition to the hallowed halls of Hogwarts"

As the young girl beamed at the Professor`s praise and signed her name on the parchment in ballpoint pen, the name Hermione Granger appeared underneath that of one Harry Potter in the Hogwarts register. Had anyone noticed, they would've been surprised to see that it first got written in black ink like a lot of the names in the register and slowly turned gold... something else that hadn't happened for quite some time and something that the headmaster should've definitely noticed sooner rather than later.

* * *

_**A/N: So there it is... another chapter done. Hope all of you liked it... **_

_**This chapter was written out a bit early and so got posted earlier than normal... but most of the coming chapters will get posted on a fortnightly schedule... EAS has exams and I have my project ending soon... :(**_

_**But we love hearing from you all the time and would appreciate it more than you can imagine if you could get back to us with your thoughts and ideas regarding the fic. So don't hesitate to hit that blue button and tell us what you thought...**_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB and EAS**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Hi there... So here`s the next chapter of HP and the WoC... Once again, I wanna thank all the readers, reviewers and most of all, my amazing beta and co author, ElizabethAnneSoph.**_

_**Hope you enjoy this chapter too... please don`t forget to review your thoughts and ideas for the fic... any and all feedback is eagerly awaited and thoroughly appreciated :)**_

* * *

**Chapter 03**

Harry James Potter had never in his eleven years on the planet done many of the things that normal children of his age did almost daily. He'd never been allowed to go anywhere for vacation, never received any presents for birthdays, Christmas or other occasions, never seen the ocean even though he lived on an island and most importantly, Harry had never been to London on a trip that was just for fun. But today, he'd not only done most of the things he'd never done before, he'd also done so many other things that a normal child of his age couldn't even imagine doing.

To say that Harry had been fascinated at the sight of Hagrid's bike would be like saying the sky was blue. Harry had never even seen a motorbike from this close before... only seen them in a blur as they zoomed past him on the roads, much less ridden on it and the fact that this one flew, was something he could never have imagined. So after saying his polite goodbye's to the Dursley's, which they returned with venomous glares and muttered threats of 'Good Riddance you freak!', Harry had gotten onto the back seat of the motorbike, or whatever was left of it aside from Hagrid's enormous bulk. That he was hanging onto Hagrid's moleskin coat precariously, was forgotten as the motorbike rose in the air and flew at mind warping speeds across the sky.

In what had been the most exciting fifteen minutes of Harry's young life, they were in London and Hagrid, using his brains for the first time that day, brought the bike down in a relatively remote and completely deserted alley. From there, the bike made it's way in a more normal fashion to the front of a small pub named the 'Leaky Cauldron'. Harry had also been fascinated by the sudden appearance of the pub's front door, as if it was squeezing itself out from between the two buildings that were on either side. Upon asking Hagrid about it, he was told that only people of magical heritage could see the magical pub and muggles would just walk past it, not even knowing that it was there.

Upon entering the slightly rundown pub, Harry was again surprised to see that half the pub was filled with people... and all of them seemed to know Hagrid.. and most surprisingly, him. It had all started after the barman, a guy named Tom, had taken one look at him and said

"Bless my soul... That's Harry Potter"

And the noise level at the pub, which had been close to minimal the minute before, had risen to cacophonous proportions. For some reason Harry himself didn't know, he seemed to be famous in this world. People were crowding around him to talk to him, to touch him or shake his hand, all of them offering their thanks for something he was supposed to have done. Slightly dazed at what was happening, all Harry managed to do was shuffle closer to Hagrid and smile and nod his head, all the while his mind a-whirl with dozens of questions.

He couldn't remember ever meeting so many people who seemed to know him... most of them he couldn't even remember the names of even though they had introduced themselves. The one person that had stood out had been the turban-clad stuttering professor from Hogwarts. He'd been one of the last people to greet him and had seemed unnaturally nervous about it. Harry couldn't help but wondering to himself how a man that seemed to be afraid of his own shadow could teach others Defense against the Dark Arts. But then maybe, he could be mistaken and Professor Quirrell could turn out to be one of the best teachers he's ever had... so Harry kept his thoughts to himself and proceeded to follow Hagrid as the half giant went to the back of the pub.

There, with his conspicuous pink umbrella, Hagrid tapped a series of bricks in a certain pattern and to Harry's intense astonishment, the bricks started to move. It looked to the boy as if all the bricks in the wall were squirming out of the way and soon, a whole archway had been created, where just thirty seconds ago, there had been a solid wall. Through the archway, he could see a sunny street teeming with people of all kinds, lined on both sides with an array of extremely interesting shops. The whole street ended in a tall, rickety white building, that said 'Gringotts Wizarding Bank' on it's facade.

Stepping into the street with Hagrid was a sure fire way to become the focus of attention... the half giant easily towered over the others by almost two and a half to three feet and as the two of them stepped through the archway, almost the whole street full of people stopped, turned and stared. Harry wasn't too sure about the magical world yet, but he could see that giants, even half giants like Hagrid were not something very commonplace. And the eyes of the people that stared at Hargid, invariably turned down to scan him, trying to find out who he was that was accompanying the huge man. Hurriedly, from recent experience, Harry tried to flatten his bangs over his lightning bolt shaped scar, making himself look as normal as possible standing next to Hagrid in clothes that looked like they could fit the half giant.

Some people still stared but this time, no one decided to approach them. Harry silently thanked whoever was looking down upon him, and started to jog alongside Hagrid, whose steps were so big that Harry had to almost run to keep up with him.

"We're gonna need tuh go to Gringotts first Harry... ye've gottuh get money for all yer school things... n I've got... well... I've got some Hogwarts business to conduct... okay?"

"Sure Hagrid... whatever you say"

Harry had a million questions running through his mind about all the things he saw, he heard and the happenings back at the Leaky Cauldron, but he wisely kept them to himself for now, hoping that he had enough time with Hagrid to ask them all later. For the moment, Harry busied himself with taking in everything that was around him... and there was a lot of it. There were men and women dressed in robes of various colors bustling in and out of the various shops, storefronts of different kinds advertising their products. Harry could see things from potions ingredients to clothes in the various shop windows.

They also passed a shop which it seemed sold broomsticks.. and had a bunch of children his age oohing and aahing over some of them. It was just another piece of information that Harry filed away into his mind to ask Hagrid later... having been brought up in the non-magical world, to Harry, all a broom was good for was sweeping and he couldn't really understand the necessity for so much importance being given to something like that.

Before long, the two of them had crossed the whole of the street and were in front of the Gringotts building. Stepping inside from the sunlight made Harry blink... and then he blinked again to make sure he was seeing right. Because before him, was a great hall, of white marble and gold trimming, filled with counters manned by small beings that came up to his knee level. Most of them had long noses, sharp eyes and pointy ears, making them look cruel and calculating. But Harry knew better than to judge by looks alone and he tried to keep his emotions on an even keel as he walked along with Hagrid, who'd neared a counter which was unoccupied at the moment. The person, or rather goblin that was manning the counter was a particularly shrewd looking one with small gold rimmed glasses on.

Harry knew that he didn't know any of the customs to be followed when in the presence of goblins and looked to Hagrid to learn of them but the giant seemed to be unaware of them himself as he stood a little nervously in front of the goblin and rocked on his heels a bit before loudly clearing his throat. The goblin, who had been involved in checking some ledgers appeared a bit irritated at the way his attention had been called for and turned to look at them with a noncommittal facade.

"Yes?"

"Ahem... Mr. Potter wishes to make a withdrawal"

At that, the goblin, who had been studying the half giant with irritation, turned his attention to the young boy by his side and felt his astonishment show, when his eyebrows went up involuntarily. Once Ragnok knew of Harry Potter's imminent arrival into the wizarding world, he had informed all the goblins of what he wanted to be done for one of their premium customers and so the goblin at the counter, Sharpaxe, was well aware of what was to be done. But if any goblin had expected something of the Potter heir, it was not what he was seeing at that moment. The child in front of him was small, visibly undernourished and swimming in the clothes he wore. His glasses were very old and cracked and the boy seemed to know nothing of his heritage.

Goblins were trained to show no emotion while doing their job and to concentrate on what they did to the exclusion of everything else. This time, Sharpaxe found himself calling on every known reserve inside himself to not acknowledge the young man's condition in front of him. That the heir of the Potter family was in this condition, literally hurt the goblin who had been involved in the running and upkeep of the Potter accounts for almost two hundred years now, under the manager of the Potter accounts, goblin Griphook. Knowing that all of this information had to be passed to Ragnok at the earliest possible time, Sharpaxe nodded his head absently and asked the habitual next question

"And does Mr. Potter have his key?"

Harry had been enjoying looking around the busy bank floor, his eyes repeatedly caught by the goblin in the next counter, who seemed to be weighing out rubies the size of his fist in a golden scale, but he'd also been listening to the conversation between Hagrid and the goblin teller with one ear. The question that the goblin had asked, made Harry turn around so sharply, that he could hear the muscles in his neck protest with a cracking sound. Wincing slightly, Harry turned slightly fearful and confused eyes at the goblin, whose eyes, seemed to be a lot kinder than they had looked before. While Harry was still trying to process the fact that he should be having some sort of a key, he could see Hagrid patting his pockets in a random order, trying to find something.

The mystery of what the giant was trying to locate was solved half a minute later when, after some extensive searching in the various pockets of his voluminous coat, he took out what looked like an absurdly small key in his hand.

Sharpaxe had been looking at Harry when he'd asked about the key because he'd fully expected the young man to pull the key out of somewhere on his person. But when the half giant standing next to him held it out, the goblin almost lost his temper... almost. It was not the Potter heir's fault that he didn't seem to know that Gringotts vault keys should never be held by anyone other than the owner or someone whom the owner had specifically given permission to... and to Sharpaxe's knowledge, there was no way Harry James Potter had given permission to anyone to hold his keys. This in itself was a major violation of standard banking protocols and the goblin was sure that Hagrid wasn't aware of just what he was doing. No... the blame lay with someone much more in the background... someone who liked to stay away from the frontlines and manipulate people into performing for him like puppets.

Trying to tamp down on his anger, the goblin took a long moment to look at the young man standing nervously in front of him again and nodded his head

"Very well... If you will give me a minute"

Pulling out a small communications device from inside his desk, the goblin held a fast paced conversation in Gobbledygook before nodding his head a couple of times in assent to the replies he got from the other side. The Potter scion and the half giant were told to wait for a couple of moments at the end of the conversation.

Less than half a minute later, two huge doors opened off to the side and the small figure of a slightly younger looking goblin stepped through. He was clad in a suit, more official looking than what the teller had been wearing and Harry noticed it while he wasn't sure Hagrid did. Walking up to them, the goblin bowed a bit to Harry, announcing himself

"Welcome to Gringotts, I am goblin Griphook. I will be escorting you to your vaults today"

Harry knew that even if Hagrid hadn't done anything of that sort, he had reply in some way and stood up. Bowing from the waist to the smaller magical being in front of him, Harry politely said

"Good Morning Goblin Griphook... it is a pleasure making your acquaintance. I am thankful for your assistance."

He could see the goblin's eyes widen a bit before they became normal again and worried that he hadn't committed some error, but the goblin in front of him was already speaking

"It is my honor Mr. Potter. Please follow me"

As the young man and the half giant turned to follow the goblin into the innards of the bank, he failed to notice that a lot of creatures, wizards and goblins alike, had been intently watching the conversation and were wearing identical looks of astonishment at the rare display of courtesy from both sides of the wizarding world. No wizard gave that much respect to a goblin and no goblin gave that much respect to any wizard... even Dumbledore had never gotten a goblin to come out and introduce himself before escorting him down to the vaults. While the goblins were famed for their long memories and would take away a lot from the event, wizards were unfortunately a much more fickle species. None of the witches and wizards that were inside the bank that day would remember much of it, preferring to forget the event alongwith all the other things that didn't suit their way of thinking, thus missing out on the first stepping stone that had been laid that day... for the start of a revolution in the wizarding world.

* * *

After the visit to his vault, Harry knew... he loved coming to Gringotts. The small coaster-like carts that ran on rails and took him and Hagrid on the wildest ride of their lives to visit the vaults had been Harry's favorite part of the whole thing. He thought he'd seen a real live fire breathing dragon while they were careening around one bend, but that, as usual, had been filed away in his brain for later. Hagrid had looked a bit green, but Harry and Griphook had enjoyed themselves the whole way, the goblin actually smiling at the young man's enthusiasm for the ride. The effect was quite gruesome, but Harry knew enough to not mention it to his new friend... for that was what he considered the polite goblin that had accompanied them.

Griphook had given Harry an impromptu lesson on Wizarding money while they waited for their ride to come... Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. To the young man who'd grown up in the normal world, it seemed quite complicated and a convoluted system with the conversions being so difficult. The goblin had agreed with him quietly, but told him not to mention it to any wizard or witch unless he wanted an argument on his hands.

The sight of piles of golden coins in his vault, the coins he'd come recently to know were called Galleons, was one of the most unbelievable things he'd seen in the course of the day and that was saying something as that day had featured his introduction to the wizarding world, magic, a flying motorbike and disappearing walls to mention some.

After taking out just enough to last him the month before school, Harry'd had to visit another vault with Hagrid. Vault 713 was where Hagrid had taken something small, wrapped in brown paper from, and looked quite nervous about doing it in front of Harry.

"Best not to mention it eh?... it's Hogwarts business... Top Secret"

Harry had simply nodded and gotten into the small cart again.

Now, he was ensconced in a room at the Leaky Cauldron. Hagrid had told him that he would need to stay there for the night while he went and gave Professor Dumbledore whatever it was that he'd taken out of the vault. the half giant had promised to come back for dinner and Harry thought to himself that he would ask him all his questions then.

As the young man relaxed on his bed, a memory of what had occurred just before they'd left Gringotts came into his mind again

**-Flashback-**

Harry and Hagrid had just stepped off the cart at Gringotts. Harry had been grinning like a fool, having never enjoyed anything so much in his life and Hagrid had still been looking a bit queasy when Griphook had suddenly pulled Harry to the side.

"Harry Potter... there are people in the wizarding world who would like to keep you from attaining your full potential... they will hide your true heritage from you and try to manipulate you. Pay heed to my words... If you want to discover the truth about your life, come to Gringotts again... this time come alone. Director Ragnok wants to meet you and you alone"

With that speech made, Griphook moved away quickly, acting as if he hadn't even spoken to Harry, leaving the young man confused, curious and quite unbalanced. The fact that Hagrid was still quite uneasy from the cart ride had helped him by allowing him time to think. Just as they were about to go back to the public area of the bank again, Harry had made his decision and nodded at the goblin, mouthing to him that he will be present at the bank the next day. Griphook had nodded and moved away again, leaving Harry and Hagrid to step back out into the sunlight.

**-End Flashback-**

Knowing that he wouldn't be having much time before he had to start getting ready for dinner, Harry went up to the window, and stared out at the vista that was presented to him. He could see almost the whole of Diagon Alley, including Gringotts at the far end of it. He also espied the huge form of Hagrid making his way up the street and so turned and made it out of his room so that he could be downstairs by the time Hagrid got in.

The two of them had greeted each other and ordered whatever they wanted for dinner, soup for Harry and a whole roasted chicken with vegetables for Hagrid, when Harry decided that he needed answers for some, if not all the questions he'd kept in from the morning.

"Hagrid... if you don't mind, I have some questions..."

"Go on Harry... If I can answer them, I will.."

"Why do people know me Hagrid?... Why do they act like I am some famous person or something?"

"That's cuz yer famous of course. Blimey Harry!... Yer probably the most famous wizard after Professor Dumbledore and You-Know-Who... There's no one in the wizarding world that doesn't know of ye since that night... Oh. Maybe I shouldn't 've said that"

"What do you mean Hagrid? Who's this You-Know-Who?... And what night are you talking about?... Do you mean the night my parents..."

Hagrid looked extremely uneasy as he nodded shakily.

"Do you know who killed my parents Hagrid?..."

Again, the half giant nodded shakily, clearly uncomfortable with the subject and Harry knew that he would have to coax it out of the man.

"Hagrid... Please tell me. I need to know what happened to my parents... Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia never told me anything about my parents except that they were worthless wastrels who got into trouble and got killed in a car accident"

He'd wantedly mentioned the tale his aunt and uncle had fed him because he could see that Hagrid had an enormous amount of respect and love for his parents and this, if nothing else, would draw the story out.

"James and Lily Potter were killed in no stupid muggle accident!... They were the best witch and wizard around that fought for the light side... No muggle accident could've killed them... It took..."

Finally, Hagrid's brain caught up to his tongue and he sighed, knowing that he'd given out too much information again. He sighed again, deciding that it would be okay to tell the boy the whole truth about his parents. After all, he would come to know of it sooner or later from someone. He'd left a note for Professor Dumbledore when he'd left the Philosopher's stone back at Hogwarts. Meeting the professor and telling him of Harry's life at the Dursley's was important, but the headmaster had been out of the castle on other business and Hagrid figured that waiting anymore would make him late for meeting Harry. So, he'd left a note with Fawkes and left. Right now, Hagrid was regretting not staying back at Hogwarts and waiting for the headmaster. Albus Dumbledore was the most intelligent and powerful wizard ever and he would know exactly what to do and say in a situation like this.

"Harry... I know that ye wanna know what happened to yer parents... I don' know if I should be telling ye all this, but there is no other choice now..."

Harry sat back in his chair, partly trying to hold in his excitement at learning about his parents for the first time and partly in dread at knowing that he would be learning about the night they died.

"James and Lily Potter were two of the best people I've ever known Harry... yer parents were not only very powerful wizards, they were also very honest and straight forward. Not all witches and wizards are like that Harry... some o' them go bad. And there was one wizard around that time that went as bad as one could get. His name was V... V..."

Harry could see that Hagrid had trouble speaking his name.

"Maybe you could write it down"

"Nah... I couldn' spell it right... Alright... It was V-.. Voldemort. He was a very bad wizard Harry... he called himself the dark lord and wanted to rule everythin and everyone in the wizarding world and would stop at nothing to achieve it. The people who opposed him were killed or driven away by him and his supporters called Death Eaters. The only ones that faced him were the witches and wizards of the light... led by Professor Dumbledore. Yer parents were part of the force that opposed You-Know-Who and they were particularly active. They'd faced and defied him many times and he wanted to hunt them down and kill them."

Hagrid stopped, took a deep breath and looked at Harry sadly before continuing and Harry knew that he was going to be hearing about that night.

"When James and Lily had ye, they went into hiding to protect ye... Professor Dumbledore hid them using something called a Fidel... Fidelus... Fidelius Charm or something... I'm not sure. But someone betrayed them and You-Know-Who found them one night. He killed them and tried killin ye too... but somethin happened Harry... no one knows what... but somethin about ye stumped him. Somethin happened that night that drove him away. People say that he died that night... Codswallop I say... I think he's still out there, biding his time... People so dark as that don't get so easily killed like that."

Harry sat still, trying to digest all the information when something struck him

"Hagrid... my scar... is it because of Voldemort?"

He couldn't miss the half giant wince at the name and filed the fact away for consideration later. Again, the giant of a man nodded and said

"It is the mark of a curse Harry... only very dark curses leave behind scars like that. It is proof that ye faced a dark curse and lived that night Harry. That is why yer famous Harry... that is why everyone knows who ye are. Ye faced You-Know-Who when ye were barely a year old and ye defeated him. Ye are the Boy-Who-Lived."

Harry absentmindedly rubbed his scar as he listened to and assimilated what Hagrid was telling him. Almost without knowing, his lips were murmuring what was going through his mind

"Voldemort tried to kill me..."

Again, Hagrid wincing at the name brought Harry out of his thoughts and he turned to the half giant once again

"What else do you know?... What happened that night? Were you there? Please tell me everything Hagrid... I need to know"

"I wasn' there till afterwards Harry... Dumbledore came to know first... and he called me and told me tuh go get ya from yer parents house. I found ye sitting on the ground outside yer crib playin... playin with yer mum's hands. Ye weren't cryin or anythin and I just picked ye up and pulled a coupla blankets around ye before gettin ye to your Aunt and Uncle's house, where Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were waitin for us. I swear, I was cryin so hard that night that I couldn't even see properly sometimes when we were on Sirius' bike"

Harry could feel his head starting to hurt from information overload. There were a lot of things that he had learned today and he would need to process all the information at his own pace. Right now, he was feeling a bit overwhelmed and Harry knew that now wasn't the time or place to talk about anything further. Also, there was that meeting with Ragnok scheduled for the next day. Still absently rubbing a finger on his scar, Harry nodded slightly at Hagrid

"Thanks for sharing that Hagrid... I know how difficult it must've been for you. I think I should go to bed now... I'll see you tomorrow... Good Night Hagrid"

"'Night Harry. I'll try n speak to Professor Dumbledore before I get here tomorrow... we'll see what we can do after that. Okay?"

Nodding again, the young man got up and made his way to his room on the fourth floor of the pub, knowing that whatever happened, he would be having a rather full and exciting day tomorrow... it was a pity he didn't know just how exciting it was going to be.

* * *

_**A/N: So... another chapter done. Hopefully the next one will be up and running by this time next week. **_

_**Don`t hesitate to click to blue button... reviews are like the Golden Snitch in a game of Quidditch... the whole point of the exercise... :)**_

_**We love hearing from you and would like to know what you thought of this and other chapters of WoC... so review your thoughts on this chapter and ideas for chapters to come...**_

_**Lotsa Luv and cookies**_

_**MB and EAS**_

_**p.s.**_

_**Oh and my co-author ElizabethAnneSoph is gonna have exams pretty soon... So don`t forget to wish her luck!.. lemme be the first one to wish her...**_

_**Here`s wishing you all the best for your exams Soph... Hope you get through your exams with flying colors :)**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Here`s the fourth chapter guys and gals!... and a little ahead of schedule. (woot! woot!... I rock don`t I? :P)**_

_**Thank you so much for your amazing support and ideas, we, i.e. MB and EAS are overjoyed and humbled by your support. We love you all... **_

_**Hope you like this chapter too as much as you have liked the others... Please continue to review your thoughts and ideas. We love hearing from you :)**_

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Harry was up, dressed and ready for the day by around 7 in the morning. It had become a habit now, because once he'd overslept when he was around five and had gotten a bucket of water, along with the bucket thrown at his head. It was both fortunate and unfortunate that the bucket had hit Harry right on his lightning bolt scar. Fortunate because Harry had noticed something right from when he was a child... he didn't know why, but his scar wouldn't let anything else come in contact with it. Even if Harry was hit right on his scar, nothing else would show up on top of it. Unfortunate because it gave the Dursleys another reason to call him a freak and make him do double the work.

Again, there was also the other things that he himself hadn't been able to explain. Like the way things broke when he lost control of his emotions... or the way he'd suddenly find himself somewhere else if he was very afraid or emotionally disturbed by Dudley. Or the one time he'd managed to turn all the hair on Vernon's body blue... Everything including the man's mustache, eyebrows, eyelashes were a bright electric blue. That had been an unforgettable day for Harry... in the bad sense. The beating that had resulted from the blue haired Vernon Dursley had confined Harry to his cupboard for almost a week, nursing four broken ribs, a broken ankle and a whole bunch of bruises, cuts and lacerations.

And of course... there was the obviously accelerated healing ability of Harry's that got him called a freak more times than anything else. It had really only taken six days for him to recover from the four broken ribs and the broken ankle that Vernon had given him. By the end of the week, he'd been as good as new and it had almost gotten him another beating from a fuming Vernon, whose elbow was still sore from having accidentally come in contact with the wall behind him while pulling his arm back to punch the lad in the face. The Dursleys, and Harry himself hadn't been able to figure out what it was that made him heal so quickly. Petunia of course, had her suspicions, having seen something similar with Lily in the past. But that had been on a much smaller scale and so got dismissed by her as just some more freakishness from the resident freak.

Till date, neither she, nor Harry knew just how close she had been to the correct explanation. It had been the Potter magic and Harry's own magical core, that had saved his body from being permanently damaged by the physical abuse. While Lily Evans had been a powerful witch, her main talents had been in Charmcasting and Potions. She used her brains and logic more than she used her wand and magical strength. Of the two, James Potter had been the magically stronger one, even though it was Lily who'd gained more recognition for her work. Harry, having inherited his father's core strength and mother's ingenuity at birth, was already destined for great things. Something he might've known by now, had that fateful night in Godric's Hollow not happened.

But as it was, Harry had never resented his parents for leaving him alone to face the situation with the Dursleys and whatever life had thrown at him, he'd learned to accept and move forward. It was this quality of his that had led him to understand and assimilate the shock of his being a wizard in such a calm and collected manner in front of Hagrid. The sheer amount of information he'd received the previous day might've made an ordinary wizard go crazy, but Harry had taken half the night to think it over and was now pretty clear on how things stood, what the situation was and what he had to do next.

It was a pity that so much more was to happen to him that day, that would make him reevaluate everything he'd learned till now... from the beginning of his life upto the previous day.

* * *

Hermione Granger was a very happy eleven year old. She had just graduated out of Rosings Academy for Girls with the highest marks that had ever been given to any student in the country. And two days later, she'd found out that she was a real live witch who could do magic and was admitted to the best school for magic in the country. While this wasn't what she'd envisioned herself doing in her future, Hermione was intelligent enough to see that this was actually a very special advantage for her. She would get to start over, with no one making fun of her or bullying her for her knowledge. She couldn't help it if she was more intelligent than them and she refused to dumb herself down to their level so that they could stop feeling threatened by her.

Hermione had looked over the syllabus of books and other supplies she would need for her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and while most of it seemed quite arcane and mysterious to her, she couldn't really hide the fact that she was extremely excited to have completely new subjects to study, a whole new world of knowledge to explore and a brand new opportunity to start over in another setting. This time, she was determined to get everything right. She, Hermione Granger would conquer the magical world and let everyone know just how special she was.

It was this determination that made her pester her parents into making them take her to the magical part of London... to Diagon Alley to be exact. So it was the morning after she'd gotten her letter, that the Granger family were inside their shiny silver Range Rover, making their way to the Leaky Cauldron.

At the entrance to the magical pub, Hermione had a couple of moments of doubt. She had no idea whether her parents, being non-magical, would be able to even see the pub, much less enter it or the alley that it granted access to. But the doubts proved needless, as it seemed that knowledge of the magical world and the pub's location were enough to let the Grangers see and enter the rundown pub and head to the bar. Seeing that it was about half past eight in the morning and almost no one was at the bar except the barkeep and a couple of people having breakfast, Hermione boldly made her way to the bar to speak to the man behind it, while her parents trailed behind her uncertainly.

"Excuse me..."

A man of indeterminate age popped up from behind the counters, a dirty rag in his hand

"Yes Miss... How can I help you?"

For once, the usually brash Hermione seemed at a loss for words and she couldn't decide what to say for almost half a minute. Finally, the man in front of her took pity on her and asked

"Miss... My name is Tom. I own this place. If you tell me what I can do for you, I'll see to it..."

"Um... I need to get to Diagon Alley"

Hermione almost cringed back as she said it, expecting the man in front of her to tell her that no such place existed. Even after she'd witnessed Professor McGonagall doing almost unbelievable things like turning her coffee table into a pig and back, Hermione wasn't quite sure if the magical world was all it was supposed to be.

"Oh!.. why didn't you say so before... If you'll wait just a second, I'll make sure someone gets you there."

Tom peered around the young lady in front of him, trying to see if any of his staff was around. Not finding anyone he could ask to help the family in front of him, he'd just stepped out from behind the counter when he saw a young man with a mop of messy black hair and startling green eyes come down the stairs.

"Hello there Harry... Hope you had a good night"

"Oh.. Good Morning Tom... Thank you I had a very good night yesterday. Slept like a rock... I was wondering if you could help me get to Diagon Alley. I got some money from Gringotts yesterday and would like to start my school shopping today if I could"

"Well, come along then... I'm just going to the backdoor to let this family into Diagon Alley... you may go along with them..."

Harry turned to the family that he hadn't noticed behind Tom till now and nodded. They seemed like good people, the parents looking like they were quite wealthy but very nice at the same time. The father was very tall, clearing 6 feet in height and built to match, with a luxurious head of slightly messy brown hair. His brown eyes behind gold rimmed glasses were sharp and no nonsense but he had a sense of fairness about him that Harry couldn't help but feel.

The lady standing next to him was also quite tall, her svelte figure and chestnut hair in a stylish pixie cut making her look a lot younger than she probably was. She wore a subtly stylish pantsuit but still managed to project the warmth and grace that Harry had associated with the mental picture of his mother. But it was the young lady that stood between them that caught and held Harry's attention. She looked to be around his age and that was where the similarity ended.

The girl that stood with her parents though not very tall, was healthy and happy. She seemed the confident, intelligent kind... the kind of person that Harry wasn't... yet. Her dark brown hair fell in a cascade of almost bushy, uncontrolled curls down her back and her cinnamon eyes held flecks of gold as he felt her studying him the way he studied her. While Harry was sure he had never seen her or her family before, there was something so familiar about them that he almost asked them if they'd met before.

"Good Morning..."

"Good Morning dear..."

It was the lady who spoke to him first. Smiling back at her and the family in general, Harry decided to introduce himself, trying to find out if their names rang a bell of any sort in his mind.

"Hello... I'm Harry Potter"

"I am Emmaline Granger... this is my husband Daniel and this here is our daughter Hermione."

"Hi Harry... nice to meet you"

Dan extended his big hand towards Harry and Hermione gave him a small wave.

"Hi.."

Harry smiled again as he shook the parents hands and waved back at Hermione

"It's very nice to meet you Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger and Miss Hermione..."

Tom, who'd been standing next to Harry through the introductions took them all to the back and tapping the bricks again in the sequence Harry now knew and created the entrance to Diagon Alley… Harry was thankful that he'd already seen it the previous day and it was not as fascinating to him as it seemed to the Grangers, who gaped at the magical doorway. Harry grinned at the astonished and excited brown haired girl next to him and waited for Tom to lead them into Diagon Alley

"Harry... I've got to go back and take care of the pub... would you mind showing them around? I know you yourself came here just yesterday... but..."

"No problem Tom... I'll just show them what I know and if Mr. and Mrs. Granger don't have a problem with it, we could explore the rest of it together"

The Grangers expressed their approval to the plan and Tom left them at the entrance to the magical street, making his way back to the pub that he owned.

* * *

Meanwhile, Harry and the Grangers had made their way into the street, the non-magical family getting their first taste of what the wizarding world was like. The same fascination and eagerness to know things that Harry had felt the previous day was apparent on the countenances of all the Grangers, especially the youngest one.

Hermione, who'd always been ridiculed and bullied by her peers, couldn't believe that she was getting a chance to start over in a world that was so different and at the same time so exciting. The very atmosphere of magical London was different and while it made her feel a bit nervous, it also made her feel very excited at the prospect of learning all about the wizarding world, it customs and completely new subjects. The thought of subjects led to school and that logically led to the boy next to her

"Are you also going to Hogwarts?"

Harry seemed a bit surprised at her talking to him but managed to answer politely

"Yes... So you also got that letter huh?"

"Yeah... Professor McGonagall came to my house and told us all about my being a witch and gave us an introduction to the wizarding world before letting my parents decide whether they wanted to send me to Hogwarts. I am glad they did..."

Harry immediately noticed the whole bunch of differences between his introduction to the wizarding world and Hermione's but managed to refrain from commenting on it. But like always, the information was all filed away in his brain for ruminating upon it later. For now, he nodded along, letting the girl know that he understood

"What about you?... Are your parents okay with your being... you know... magical?... Are they also wizards or are they normal like my parents?"

For a second, Harry froze, not knowing how to answer Hermione's question. He knew that both the Granger parents were also listening in to their conversation while looking around at the street and decided to go with the truth.

"Oh... I wouldn't know. My parents died when I was about a year old... They were both magical... though my mum was like you... first generation. My dad was from a magical family I guess... don't know much about them yet, but I think they should be okay with my being a wizard I think"

The gasps of horror and sadness that he heard from the family were the first indications to Harry that maybe not everyone's life was like his. Having never been around an emotional woman in his life, Harry had almost no idea what to expect and was thus extremely shocked when he felt Hermione step forward and wrap her hands around him, pulling her body to his in a hug... the first hug of his lifetime... or at least the first hug he could remember.

"Oh I am so so so sorry Harry... I didn't know... or I wouldn't have said anythi-"

Hermione would've definitely said more had she been able to... but she wasn't. Her apology was interrupted by a bright flash of white light that surrounded the two hugging children and the two adults looking down at them. Since they were still in a slightly deserted part of Diagon Alley and it being just about a quarter to nine in the morning on a Saturday, it was fortunate for them that there was no one around to witness the flash of light.

Seconds later, the light diminished and the four of them came into view again. But there was one major difference.

"Harry!.."

"...Potter!"

The voices of the two adult Grangers almost echoed through the lightly populated and thankfully no one even looked twice at the foursome in one corner. But things were very different between the four people in concern.

Dan and Emma Granger stood stiff as they felt as if a dam had broken inside their minds. Something... or a number of somethings - thoughts, memories, pictures and videos of a young family of wizards flooded their minds as a memory block almost as old as the boy in front of them disintegrated. There was one thing common to all the memories and the present moment... the boy that stood in front of them. The boy they now recognized as being Harry James Potter, the son of James and Lily Potter, their friends and neighbors back in the early 1980s.

Without even a single thought, Emma Granger found herself going down on her knees and wrapping the two children in her arms. She was sobbing uncontrollably as memories of her best friend flooded her mind after almost twelve years of having been made to forget Lily and her family. Dan Granger, for his part, was holding onto his composure admirably but he couldn't have prevented the hint of moisture that glinted in his eyes as he remembered his friend and brother in everything but blood, James Potter.

James and Lily had found themselves becoming neighbors to another married young couple called the Grangers when they moved to Godric's Hollow. Friendship had quickly developed between the two couples once the Potters came to know that Emma had magical blood in her family but no one had been a witch or wizard in almost two centuries. Almost no secrets had remained between them at the end of six months, when James and Lily had trusted them with all their secrets and told them about Voldemort. After having revealed everything to them, James and Lily had also asked Dan and Emma to be godparents to their newly born son Harry as it was only fitting as they were already godparents to the Grangers' eleven month old daughter Hermione.

* * *

Harry, for the life of him, couldn't believe what was happening to him. For the first time in memory, he could remember his parents. Till now, he'd never been able to remember what they'd looked like and for some reason it hadn't seemed important to him that he'd been missing such important information about his family. The Dursley's obviously didn't keep pictures of them around and Harry had never seemed to remember what they looked like or even wondered about it though he'd never paid much attention to that, thinking that it was maybe because he hadn't seen them much even when he was a baby. But from the moment Hagrid had spoken of them, Harry had felt almost an ache somewhere deep inside him, his mind and heart weeping for something he couldn't even remember.

After Hagrid's revelations the previous night, he'd tried his hardest to remember, but met up with what felt like a solid wall inside his mind... his thoughts were completely blank whenever he tried to remember his parents and how they had looked. From Hagrid's description of how he looked like his dad but had his mum's eyes, Harry had tried to construct the picture of how he thought his parents might look, but even that hadn't worked.

But now, as the brown haired girl hugged him, the moment her thin arms slipped around him and her body came into contact with his, pictures, visions and memories started to literally flood his mind. Harry was very vaguely aware of himself stiffening, his mind literally exploding with memories impacting his physical self. With all that was going on Harry was still somehow aware of Hermione reacting to something the same way he was. He had just a moment to contemplate on that before more memories than he could handle washed over him and the eleven year old found his vision turning dark.

* * *

_**A/N: So there it is... another chapter done. Next chapter is going to be up sometime either by the end of this week or early next week. I have some free time coming up and I want to get as much of it done as possible. **_

_**Please review your thoughts and ideas, feedback from you, the reader is always eagerly expected and amazingly satisfying to us, the writers. **_

_**Stay tuned for the next chapter and don`t forget to click the blue button... :)**_

_**Luv and cookies**_

_**MB**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Hello again!... I am back with another chapter. Hope you guys like this one as much as you seem to have liked all the previous chapters :)**_

_**Don`t forget to review your thoughts and ideas for the fic... Your feedback, no matter what it says, means the world to us.**_

* * *

**Chapter 5**

When Harry came around again, it was to the vision of three extremely worried faces peering at him. Hermione, who seemed to have taken up residence next to him, was holding on to his hand in a death grip, her huge cinnamon eyes filled with tears. To his other side, the Granger parents were sitting, Dan holding Emma in his arms as the lady cried softly. The second he opened his eyes, all of them moved closer to him with a multitude of questions

"Harry!... are you alright?"

Slowly getting up from his position on the ground, Harry looked around a bit to find that they were still in the same spot as they had been before he'd fainted. Only this time, he was lying on the ground with the Grangers surrounding him.

"Yeah... I'm okay. The memories kinda just... overwhelmed me I guess."

"So, you... remember?"

The tentative question from Emma Granger made Harry turn to her, to see that she was looking at him with a mix of hope and trepidation. It was as if she wanted him to remember while worrying that he might not.

"That... you're my... Godparents?"

With tears streaming from their eyes, both the elder Grangers nodded vigorously, Emma unconsciously opening her arms for Harry to step into them... which the boy did, with ease. The moment he stepped into Emma Granger's embrace, Harry felt more at home, more comfortable and safer than he'd ever felt before in his life. He finally had somebody in this world that genuinely cared for him and the eleven year old couldn't help but wonder what it was that he felt at the moment... what it was that made him feel more comfortable around these almost strangers than he'd ever felt around anybody... even his so called family, in his life. As if reading his thoughts, it was Hermione that answered him

"It's the feeling of being home Harry... you're finally with people who care for you and love you for who you are"

While a part of his brain was astonished at the fact that Hermione had managed to somehow answer the questions in his mind, the other part of his brain couldn't help but agree with her statement. This must be what being with family felt like... and Harry found that he liked the feeling very much. Tightening his hold on Emma, Harry burrowed into the warmth and for the first time in a long time, felt warm tears fill his eyes and slide down his face. He knew he was completely soaking Emma's shirt but somehow, he couldn't stop crying. It was as if a dam had broken inside him and he was crying now for all the occasions he'd managed to hold his tears in.

As he continued to sob in Emma's hold, Harry could feel Dan Granger and Hermione come around to hug the two of them, making it a tight family hug. In the middle of the Granger family, Harry Potter found his strength again... all his pain, his sadness, the feelings that had made a huge, tight ball inside his chest, weighing him down gradually melt as the cleansing tears flowed. As the whole family around him rallied to lend their strength to him, Harry found himself again, lighter, happier and much more focused than he had been before.

Till now, he'd been a clueless eleven year old just trying to survive the hand that life had dealt him. But now, he was Harry James Potter, the last of the House of Potter... and with the memories of one family and the presence of another, he was finally a wizard. And with the memories came determination.. To right the wrongs and take his rightful place in the wizarding world.

Stepping back from Emma Granger's embrace, Harry was happy to see that the Granger family also looked as happy as he felt. Emma and Dan were beaming down at him while he could feel Hermione standing next to him, squeezing his hand in silent support. Turning to the girl next to him, Harry asked the one question on the forefront of his mind

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

Hermione had a slightly confused expression on her face as she regarded him

"When?"

"Just now... when you said that about being around family..."

"Oh.. I didn't know what you were thinking... just felt to me like you were thinking about something like that. I can't really explain how I knew... I just did."

Hermione looked slightly frustrated by the time she finished her explanation... She was a girl used to knowing and understanding everything and somehow, Harry knew that this was immensely frustrating and slightly scary for her to not be able to understand or explain something clearly. Again, like Hermione had told him, he didn't know how he knew what she was feeling, but he just did. Filing away that piece of information for later, Harry smiled at the brown haired girl with a commiserating look, before turning to her parents, thus missing the concerned glance they shared with each other

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, would you mind very much if we visited Gringotts first? I was supposed to meet Ragnok today and I would be grateful if you could accompany me..."

Before anyone could react, they heard Hermione gasp and turned to look at her gaping at Harry

"Hermione... what is it?"

"Did... Did you say R-Ragnok?"

Harry nodded, feeling very confused at Hermione's reaction. But it was all swept away at her next comment, which was made in perfect Hermione lecture style, which would become very well known to Harry in the future

"Harry... that is probably the biggest honor any wizard can receive in the Goblin world. It is well known that Warrior Ragnok is the leader of all the Goblin clans in the world. He is kinda the king of the Goblins, though they don't believe in Rulers... only clan leaders and a group of Elders who run the Goblin nation. It has been said that no one in this generation has ever met Ragnok... not even the minister of Magic. I read it in a book Professor McGonagall left for me when she came for my introduction..."

Harry and the older Grangers could only gape at Hermione as she finished her short lecture, smiling at them in a slightly superior manner that indicated that she was happy she'd managed to impart some important information. While the parents couldn't help but chuckle at their daughter's behavior, Harry was still gaping at Hermione and the depth of her knowledge

"Wow Hermione!... You're awesome... I didn't even know Ragnok was the leader of the Goblin nation. Thanks for telling me that or I might've made some mistake and gotten thrown out of the bank on my ear."

He didn't know it, but Harry had just become the first person outside of her family to praise Hermione on her braininess... It wasn't something she was likely to forget easily and it was something that Harry knew he was going to repeat many, many times over the years. But this time, being the first time anyone other than her mum and dad had praised her like this... Of course, her teachers in school had been all praises for her academic talents, but Hermione had never felt like she was a normal person when she was in school. She`d always been made to feel like some sort of a showpiece or something, only because she had been more intelligent than other children of her age... it wasn`t like she could control how her brain worked or something. But now, as Harry praised her, Hermione found herself blushing quite heavily, which made Harry blush in turn and made the parents laugh at the children.

Dan and Emma were still laughing at the blushing twosome when the four of them stepped into the Gringotts building. Once inside, Harry, like Hagrid had the day before, only this time with a bit more politeness than the half-giant had managed

"Good Morning goblin Sharpaxe..."

And this time, the eleven year old did not miss the fact that the goblin appeared almost gob smacked by the fact that he had been remembered and identified correctly by a wizard, and a young one at that. Putting down his eagle feather quill, the goblin managed a only slightly gruesome smile as he regarded the young wizard in front of him. It had only been a day, but the change in the boy was almost astonishing and the goblin could correctly attribute most of it to the happy smile on his face. Looking up, Sharpaxe noticed the non-magical family with him, the way they were standing almost protectively around the young wizard and the tight but comforting hold the young lady standing next to Harry had on his hand. The smile on the wizened old goblin's face widened a bit as he recognized the young lady and bowed in greeting

"Good Morning Mr. Potter... how may I assist you today?"

"I have an appointment with Chief Ragnok, goblin Sharpaxe and I would be grateful if you could tell me how to get to his office."

"Certainly Mr. Potter... If you could wait, I will have someone escort you and the Grangers to Chief Ragnok's office"

"How..?..."

The question, as usual, had come from Hermione and the goblin smiled a bit more before answering

"We make it a point to know all our customers Miss Hermione... Well, if you could all wait for a moment now, I will see if I can get someone to escort you..."

"Thank you goblin Sharpaxe... may your swords stay sharp and your gold multiply"

Harry had thought about his greeting to the goblins long and hard the previous night. Obviously, he would need to greet them in some way and with no one to guide him and his previous experience of the goblins with Hagrid not helping him at all, Harry had to fall back on what he'd read about them to come up with something they might appreciate... or at least not take offense at. From what he knew of goblins, they were a race of magical beings that specialized in two things - War and Finances. Goblins were by nature a warrior community, but during times of peace, they focused on business, thus becoming the only race of magical beings that had control over the complete finances of the wizarding world.

Harry knew enough about the goblins and the wizarding world to know that having the goblins on his side of whatever he was getting into, would be a priceless advantage. And coming to know from Hermione that he had been invited to meet the Chief of the goblins, had cemented his plan.

The goblin's reaction to his greeting was quite amusing to the young wizard but he knew better than to make his amusement known. Sharpaxe was standing in front of him, giving a very good impression of a goldfish, before he gathered his wits and bowed a bit

"May your wit stay sharp and your wand true, young wizard..."

With those words, the older goblin pressed a button and spoke into his communication device in Gobbledygook and Harry led the Grangers away to the lounge he'd waited in the previous day.

The four of them didn't have to wait too long before the huge doors to their left opened just like the previous day and Griphook walked out. Harry stood up at the sight of his friend and bowed to the relatively young goblin before greeting him, prompting the Grangers to bow to him too

"Well met goblin Griphook..."

"Well met Mr. Potter... I trust you are doing well this morning. I have been instructed to bring you and the Grangers to Lord Ragnok's office... if you will follow me"

"Excuse me Mr... er.. goblin Griphook... It was Harry who was invited for the meeting. We wouldn't want to intrude"

"It would be no intrusion sir. Lord Ragnok knows that Mr. Potter trusts you and has extended the invitation to you too. After all, Mr. Potter should have at least one set of god parents around to act as guardians"

With that, the goblin turned to walk through the door he had come out through and the two magical children followed by the astonished parents went in after him. They were taken through beautiful, ornate hallways of polished marble and onyx, the moldings and pillars inlaid with jewels of various kinds. The almost casual splendor of it all astonishing the group of humans that were one of the very few of their kind to have seen all of it. Quite deep inside the bank, they were led to a set of doors that looked like they'd been made out of solid gold and stood by while they were announced and led inside.

The insides of the room they were led into, were not in any way lesser than anything they had seen at the bank yet, but the overall effect was one of sleek sophistication with a touch of austerity. The focus of their gazes however, was not anything in the room, but the figure sitting behind the massive desk in the center of it. The goblin at the desk was slightly taller and older than the rest of them, his wizened face revealing his being a great warrior as much as the great axe that was slung at his belt. He was clad in a set of armor that Harry could somehow identify as being Basilisk skin and to the astonishment of the goblin accompanying them, he stood up to receive them.

Knowing who they were in the presence of, Harry bowed low, before greeting the goblin in front of him

"Greetings Lord Ragnok, Leader of the Goblin nation... I am Harry Potter and it is an honor to be in your presence Sir."

"Well met young Mr. Potter... It is my pleasure to make your acquaintance at last. I have been waiting for this day since you were born"

The goblin inclined his head regally, the gesture somehow both royal and graceful at the same time. The Grangers, who had been silent till the moment, took the opportunity to bow to the Lord of the goblins

"Greetings Lord Ragnok... you are very gracious to extend your invitation to us. It is an honor to meet you your Highness."

"Greetings Mr. Granger, Mrs. Granger... and Miss... Hermione. It is a pleasure making your acquaintance. I can honestly say that I have been waiting to make Miss Granger's acquaintance longer than I have been waiting to meet young Harry here..."

The goblin chief smiled, feeling quite amused at having astonished the four of them

"Do not worry... all your doubts will be clarified by the time you leave the bank today. Now... if you don't mind, let us get down to business"

The Chief of the goblins returned to his desk, pressing a button on his console and Griphook, who had been waiting outside came in

"You have already met Griphook Mr. Potter... he has been managing your finances and estates for the last hundred years or so."

"Please sir... if you could call me Harry. I expect to see someone older when you say Mr. Potter. And I am very happy that goblin Griphook is my account manager. But I am not quite sure about what you just said Lord Ragnok... what do you mean by finances and... estates?... I only have one trust vault. I visited it yesterday and withdrew some money from it for my school purchases and other things"

"Alas Harry... It is very sad that the last of the House of Potter has been kept in the dark about his inheritance and place in the wizarding society. However, we in the goblin nation feel that it is time things should be clarified to you. The Potters are one of the most ancient and influential families of the wizarding world. They have been and if we goblins have anything to say about it, will continue to be at the forefront of the wizarding world for a long time. Your trust vault is just one of the vaults set up for the Potter family... it is set up with about 2000 Galleons at the beginning of the year and refilled at the end of the year, every year. Griphook... if you could detail the Potter finances and estates?"

"Yes my Lord Ragnok... The Potter estates stand valued at about 12.5 Million Galleons this year. This is due to the fact that after the passing of the last Mr. Potter, all investments have been made only in the low risk, low return category until further notice from the heir of the vaults. The estate also has the Potter Manor, the cottage at Godric's Hollow, the Isle of Wright, Shell Cottage and the Chateau at Corsica under maintenance and supervision. The Potter estate also has controlling interest in over fifteen businesses in the wizarding world and a number of others in the non-magical world."

Despite the fact that Harry had known he would be coming to know of the reality of his parents' lives today, he'd never expected something of this magnitude. To find out that he was one of the richest wizards in the magical world had knocked the boy for a sixer and he'd been almost unable to pay attention to anything else the goblin had said. He was, in fact, still blinking owlishly at he goblin in charge of his accounts when he heard Ragnok call his name

"Harry... I know that you are quite surprised at the revelations that you have had today, but there is something important that you have to do. Please allow Griphook to escort you to your mother's vault, you have something waiting for you there."

"I will go with Griphook Lord Ragnok but I have a few questions before that... if I may.."

The goblin inclined his head again, allowing the young wizard to speak his mind

"Lord Ragnok... I... I have so many questions... I don't know where to start I guess..."

"Shall I offer a piece of advice Harry?..."

"Please do so Lord Ragnok... I would be grateful for your guidance"

"I suggest you visit your mother's vault young wizard. She was a very bright witch indeed and she has found ways and means to accomplish things in the magical world that none have even thought of yet. If you have anything troubling you after your visit to her vault, I would be glad to offer you my views. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes Lord Ragnok. Thank you for being so gracious"

"It is my duty to you as your adviser Harry..."

Harry bowed once more to the old goblin and made his way out of the office with Griphook. Ragnok turned his attention to Hermione, who was looking at bookshelf behind his desk with great curiosity.

"Miss Granger, would you like to take a closer look at some of the books?"

He couldn't help but be amused at the way she brightened at the mention of books. She was indeed very much like the late Mrs. Potter. The lord of the goblins left his desk and made his way to a set of table and chairs set up a bit away from the rest of his office, motioning for the Granger parents to follow him

"If you would please take your seats Mr. and Mrs. Granger"

As the three of them sat, the parents saw Ragnok perform a slight gesture with his hand and the two humans heard a slight buzz.

"I apologize for sending Miss Granger away to the books but this is a conversation best had between ourselves."

This, more than anything else, caught and held Dan and Emma's attention

"I would like to talk to you about the possible repercussions of the fledgling soul bond... between your daughter and Harry Potter"

* * *

_**A/N: So there it is... another chapter done. Hope you all liked it**_

_**Please don`t forget to review your thoughts and ideas... each and every word of feedback is extremely important to us and eagerly awaited by us**_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB and EAS**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: Hi there!... Another chapter is here. Hope you guys enjoy this one too... **_

_**Please don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas for this chapter and the ones to come. We love hearing from you... it is the best part of writing this stuff! :)**_

* * *

**Chapter 6**

As Griphook escorted Harry out of Ragnok's office, the young man could hardly contain his excitement. He was going to the vault that had been his mother's and Ragnok had told him that there was something inside the vault for him. Now, he wasn't stupid enough to think that his mum might be there, though a little corner of his heart said that after all, this was the magical world, anything could be made possible. But for the most of it, Harry knew that while he had well and truly lost his parents, he would still love to have anything that they had wanted him to have. Anything of theirs would mean the world to the eleven year old who couldn't even remember what his parents had looked like up until two hours ago.

To Harry's utter disappointment, Griphook took Harry down a corridor in the opposite direction from the one that led to the carts. Harry had developed a taste for the Gringotts carts and couldn't wait to ride in them again and was understandably put out. But he brightened when Griphook told him why. While Harry had expected the goblins to keep their most important vaults on the deepest level underground, Griphook had corrected his assumption by saying that the most important vaults belonged to their most important clients. And none of those clients could be expected to ride like school children in little carts to get to their vaults. Also, getting to any thief would be easiest if the vaults were nearest to the bank's main floor. So, Gringotts had come up with a system that brought the vault to the customer, much like in non-magical banks with their safety deposit boxes in Switzerland, Griphook had explained. While non-magical banks used pass codes and supposedly irreproducible keys, which could be replicated if a wizard put his brains to work, Gringotts used a combination of the witch or wizard's magical signature and palm print, each of which could never be duplicated by another witch or wizard.

Griphook led Harry into a chamber that had faintly rounded walls. As they passed through the threshold, Harry could feel a slight buzz of magic and Griphook told him that it was the bank's customer identification system, which had automatic enchantments built in so that any form of disguise or charm or any other enchantment like poly juice would get removed immediately. It wouldn't do for the special vaults to be accessed by someone who was not who they claimed to be.

"It's called the Thief's downfall... We are very proud of it at Gringotts. It was actually invented by a paranoid wizard in the late 1600s to make sure that any person entering his home was actually the one who they said they were... We purchased the rights and patents to the charm after he passed and it's been working like a charm ever since."

By this time, they were standing in front of a large vault door which was housed on the farthest wall of the chamber. There was some sort of a magical sensor along with a depression in the size and shape of a human palm on a stand just slightly to one side. On Griphook's instructions, Harry stepped forward and let the sensor scan his magical aura and put his hand on the depression for the system to scan and accept his palm print. Once that was done, the display unit on top of the scanner gave him a list of all the vaults he had access to.

To say that Harry was flabbergasted would be like saying that the ocean is wet. For one, he couldn't believe just how much money and accounts he had control over... and another, Harry just couldn't believe that he had actual accounts in an actual bank that actually had stuff his parents had left for him. While the trust vault had been a godsend, it had been sort of like a windfall... a bequest from an estranged uncle or winning the lottery. There had been nothing personal about it. But this, this was personal and more. This was his legacy, his heritage... his family and Harry was feeling quite understandably emotional as he chose the Evans' vault from the list displayed

"It would do well to stand back for a moment Harry... It will take a minute to retrieve the vault from it's position"

"I didn't know the bank was so technically advanced Griphook... Most of the wizarding world is still in the dark ages... I guess I expected the same thing here, especially after seeing the entrance hall with all the goblin tellers and the stones and galleons being weighed"

"That Harry... is just the thing we want all the wizards to think. It serves a two-fold purpose. One, the wizards and witches, who are our major customers, are unacquainted with technology and detest it... So making it seem like we are also behind times like them makes them comfortable. Secondly, if they think that the bank still uses protections like in the older times, they would be in for a nasty surprise"

The goblin grinned gruesomely, but Harry couldn't help but smile back at his friend, thinking about just how clever the goblins were being

"But... wouldn't anyone accessing these special vaults know?"

"Ah!... That's where the true genius of the goblins is... if I might say so myself. This receiving chamber is attuned to the magical aura of any customer entering it. The chamber changes itself magically to an environment the customer might expect. You are from the muggle world and understand and expect technology in a place like this so the bank had given you the true picture of what things are like."

"So... if I was somebody else, like say... Hagrid... I would be perceiving this room differently?"

At the goblin's nod, Harry whistled under his breath

"That's really impressive magic Griphook... and very, very clever"

The goblin smiled again, nodding

"I know... Oh... here's your vault. I'll leave you to it then. I shall be in Lord Ragnok's office waiting for you"

"Thank you Griphook... I think I can find my way back"

They bowed to each other and the goblin left as Harry turned to the enormous vault door in front of him. He knew from what Griphook had told him that the chamber was now sealed from the outside and would not be letting anyone inside or let them see what was going on. There were a whole corridor of such chambers reserved for usage by the most influential clients of the bank. However, Harry wasn't thinking about all that when he put his hand on the door handle. The heavy door swung open like it was made of paper, silent and effortless, allowing him a glimpse into the vault.

It was built like a square room, empty of everything except a comfortable looking single couch in the middle with a small glass table to one side. There was a single sheet of paper on the table and Harry picked it up to read it

_**Hi Harry...**_

_**Please sit in the chair and everything will become clear to you**_

_**All the love in the world**_

_**your Mum**_

His hands trembled as he beheld the small, neat lettering that must've been his mother's. To think that he hadn't even been able to remember what she looked like till about two hours ago and that too, he remembered thanks to Hermione Granger being the affectionate person she was. Still shaking a bit, Harry put down the letter and walked round the couch and taking a deep breath, lowered himself into it, just to almost vault out of it in shock as he perceived the person who he'd never thought he would see again, standing in front of him

"Mum!"

* * *

"Soul bond?... What soul bond?"

Dan Granger had prided himself at being a reasonable and easy going man. But right now, he was finding it quite difficult to reign in his temper and knowing that his wife was having the same trouble was not helping.

The expression on Ragnok's face, if either of them had been able to read it, was saying 'I don't want to explain it in this manner or at this moment, but there is no other choice'. Sighing internally, the leader of the goblin nation turned once more to the parents in front of him

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, to understand what I am about to tell you, you must first understand what a soul bond actually is..."

"What else could it be... sounds like some of the 'love at first sight', 'marriage made in heaven' crap that some people believe in..."

Dan Granger might be slow to anger but he was equally hard to convince out of it... and right now, Ragnok knew that he had his job cut out for him. The fact that it involved Dan's precious princess made it doubly difficult for the old goblin, knowing just how much the parents loved their child. But fortunately, he hadn't been counting on Emma, who managed to reign in her temper long enough to be the voice of reason

"Dan...please honey. Let Lord Ragnok make his point. Remember... we're his guests"

"You're right Emma... I am sorry for losing my temper Lord Ragnok but I am not going to apologize for anything else. We have a right to know and decide what is going on in our children's life. This soul bond sounds like something very definitive and I don't know if Harry and Mione are ready for something like that yet..."

While the goblin had been expecting this sort of a reaction to the information about the soul bond, he couldn't help but marvel at the fact that the Grangers seemed genuinely concerned not just for their daughter, but also the young man in question. They really were exceptional muggles, he thought to himself... but they had to be if Lily Potter had chosen them herself, to be her son's muggle godparents.

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger... thank you for agreeing to hear this out. I promise you will not regret your decision. A soul bond is not some definitive, written in stone sort of thing that you seem to think it as... I will try and explain it in terms you might be able to relate with... but I request you to bear with me if I make mistakes because this is the first time I am explaining it to non-magical people"

At the silent and slightly curious nods of the Grangers, Ragnok proceeded

"Magic... is a wondrous thing. It is also something that cannot be explained at times. Why certain people acquire magical abilities and why others do not is a question that magical scientists are still trying to answer. The only explanation that we have been able to come up with till now is that all beings are innately magical... but only some of us are able to actively reach and use our magical core. Something in the genetic code I guess... but then we're still not sure. And those who are able to reach their core, do so in different ways, they perceive their magical energy is myriad ways and are able to utilize it using their understanding of their magical core. This is basically why some muggleborn children are found to be witches and wizards, even though no one in their family has ever manifested those sort of powers till then."

Ragnok stopped to see if the Grangers were following him... at their wide eyed look, he continued, satisfied that they were able to understand him, a feat he hadn't particularly expected

"Now as you know, magic is done in different ways and each and every one's magical capabilities are different. But... some people have magical capabilities that complement each other... and that is what has happened with Harry and Hermione. Magic has recognized that while they are very powerful by themselves, together, they have the ability to become unbeatable."

"The magical energy that they share, will bring them closer to each other. But I want to make it clear right now that there is no element of force or lack of freedom here. The soul bond is a way of magic's recognition of their complementing energies. While the bond might bring them closer emotionally, it will never take away their freedom of choice."

"If Hermione grows up and thinks of boyfriends, she might consider Harry first, before rejecting him or accepting her choice based on his actions towards her... and the same holds true for Harry. They will in no way be bound to choosing each other or prevented from choosing other people... but if they do choose each other, their relationship will be of the strongest kind, stronger than a relationship they might have with other people. A soul bonded couple will not think about straying from their partner.. and there have been no records of any soul bonded couple ever leaving their partner after they had decided on each other. But until both of them decide to stay with each other, they will be free to date whoever they want, or even marry whoever they want."

Dan and Emma seemed to be deep in thought once Ragnok finished his explanation...

"So... you're saying that whether he becomes our son-in-law in time or not, Harry is going to be a stable fixture in our Hermione's life... and their relationship is going to be because of the soul bond?"

The goblin nodded, but remained silent, knowing the need of the humans to understand the situation they were in

"Anything else we should be knowing about this soul bond issue?"

"Well.. there are some effects of the bond that might be apparent, depending on the strength of their bond..."

"Like?"

"Love, lust and other emotion potions do not work on a soul bonded couple. Any one trying to break them apart when they have decided to bond with each other, will receive the greatest punishment possible. There have been some recorded occasions of emotional transference... but that depends on the strength of the bond... and usually bonds between such young children do not reflect that sort of intricacy if they haven't known each other for a long period of time"

"Uh... Emotional transference... is that the ability to feel what your bond... partner is feeling?"

"Yes... If the emotion is felt strongly enough by a bonded witch or wizard, emotional transference will enable their bond mate to feel it too"

There was a slightly shocked look on both the faces of the Granger parents but they weren't saying anything for the moment

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger, if you do not mind me asking... are you going to reveal the nature of the bond between your daughter and Harry to her?"

The Grangers looked at each other and a few moments of silent conversation later, nodded their heads

"We think that it is better to be upfront with Hermione... she is mature beyond her years in a lot of things, but also very curious. So it would be better if we told her right now before she finds something out for herself and draws her own conclusions"

"Would you mind waiting until Mr. Potter is here too?... This affects him as much as it does your daughter"

Again, the Grangers nodded

"Mum, dad... something weird is going on..."

Immediately, all adults became alert... the worried and slightly bewildered tone of Hermione's voice was extremely unusual and this fact was recognized by Ragnok too

"What is it princess?"

"Well dad... I don't know how I know... but I just do... I think Harry is very happy now. Very, very happy"

The silence that pervaded the goblin chief's office post the statement was nothing short of ominous.

* * *

"Mum?"

In his utter astonishment, Harry didn't even notice when he'd jumped from the couch and was standing right in front of where his mother had been. Where there was nothing now... Harry's bewilderment reached new heights as he frantically searched the relatively small room for her. She had just been standing in front of him the previous second and now she was gone... It was like someone was being deliberately cruel to him and Harry was close to losing all control he'd had over his volatile emotions. The disappointment that ate away at him was so great that he didn't even notice as his legs buckled and he sat down hard into the chair behind him.

"Harry..."

There it was again. With his head bowed, Harry was hearing someone calling his name and feeling extremely nervous about looking at them. He didn't want to see his mother standing in front of him again just to vanish when he tried to get to her

"Harry... my son... Please look up here. I need to confirm your identity before the codex can be accessed."

Slowly, almost as if he couldn't believe what was happening, Harry looked up and into the face of the woman standing in front of him. A fairy-like face with bright green eyes that looked back at him in the mirror everyday, topped by a head of luxurious deep red hair stared back at him. Without even being aware of it, Harry's eyes filled up with tears as he finally took in the fact that his mother was standing in front of him.

He was just about to vault out of the chair again and go to her when she held up a restraining hand

"No Harry... I will be visible to you only if you remain seated in the chair. If you get out of it, I will disappear"

"What?... Why?... Mum... what's happening? Are you some kind of prisoner?"

The form of Lily Potter in front of him looked a bit sad as she answered

"Sorry Harry... I am not really your mum. I am just a sentient memory of Lily Potter's that she created before she passed, so that you might be able to access the knowledge she wanted you to have"

Harry could only gape at the figure of Lily Potter in front of him, the waves of emotions crashing over him not allowing him to answer verbally. Finally, he'd been able to see and talk to his mum... but it was not his mum. It was just a hologram of sorts, a memory of hers that was able to communicate with him. If he didn't know better, Harry would've thought it was somebody being deliberately cruel to him. To show him a part of the one thing he'd wanted for so long and not allow him access to it, was particularly galling to the eleven year old. That he would be able to see her and talk to her but not go near her or touch her was shredding any meager amount of control he had been able to retain. Tears were leaking out of his tightly shut eyes as the young man tried to keep himself from crying out loud, the effort of suppressing his stronger emotions making his thin body shudder.

"Harry... please sit back and relax into the chair. The Potter codex is in the form of a compact knowledge transfer segment. The screen in front of you will beam the knowledge directly into your brain and it will remain there till you need it. Now please sit up so that the information transfer can take place"

The young man was still teary eyed and breathing erratically, but he obeyed the soft but firm voice of his mother's mental projection. Sitting back, he focused on the eyes of his mother's hologram and tried to relax, but the sudden feeling of information streaming into his mind made him stiffen up immediately.

"Please relax Harry... the knowledge transfer process has to complete for it to work at any later date. I know that it is uncomfortable but try and focus on something that makes you feel better"

Harry found himself following her instructions and without any conscious thought, started to think of his bushy haired, extremely intelligent and generous hearted best friend, Hermione Granger. And without knowing it, Harry relaxed enough to let the rest of the process continue without a hitch. It took close to an hour for the whole of the Potter codex compiled by Lily Potter to be... for the lack of a better term, downloaded into Harry's brain and by the time it was done, the young man felt quite disoriented. His brain felt like it had been forced to grow to twice its size inside his head, but the disconcerting fact was that even after the supposed knowledge transfer, he didn't seem to know anything new.

"Mum... I don't think it quite worked."

The image in front of him looked slightly amused

"I wouldn't be in a rush to say that Harry... try it out"

"But how?... I don't seem to know anything new that I didn't already know before"

"Ah... but that's the best part of it if I might say so myself. The codex in your mind is like an automated mental reference book. Whenever you need information on something, just think about it and the codex will bring that information to the forefront of your mind. I have also imbued the knowledge transfer process with a secondary spell that should give you rudimentary occlumency shields and basic knowledge of the sciences of Occlumency and Legilimency. You will find them very useful in your life in the magical world Harry. Use your knowledge well..."

"What are all the subjects the codex has?"

"Well... That would be Charms, Transfiguration, Potions, Defense, Arithmancy, Runes, Advanced Spell crafting, Duelling magic and Technomancy. The sections of Transfiguration and Potions are done by me, Transfiguration and Technomancy are by your father, and Defense, Arithmancy and Runes are from the older version of the Potter codex that your father got from his father. Though all of the codex has been transferred into your mind, the optimal sections will unlock when you reach the correct age. The codex is charmed to unlock new sections of each year on the completion of your birthday. That way, you will have a whole month to get used to the new knowledge you gain before you have to use it in classes that year"

"Cool!... So will it make me know everything I will need in school for the first year right now?"

"No Harry... It is more of a reference work and teaching aid. This is knowledge that might help you understand what you are taught in a manner that is better and easier for you. But it does not replace your teachers at Hogwarts. Also, the Potter codex will not help you cheat in any exam. This is a great wealth of knowledge you have been given by virtue of being a Potter Harry... use it well my son."

"I will mum..."

"Ask Ragnok to have a healer look at you Harry. You might not have to wear glasses like James did if you went to the healer soon enough."

With that, the image of his mother flickered and disappeared, leaving Harry alone in the vault, with a lingering headache from the huge amount of knowledge that had recently come to reside in his head. What he didn't know was that across the bank, in Ragnok's office, Hermione Granger was getting a little irritable... and for no reason.

"Hermione... princess, is anything wrong?"

"No daddy... I just have a headache..."

* * *

_**A/N: So there... another chapter done!... The next chapter is already in the works and will be posted soon... maybe end of the week, so stay tuned :)**_

_**Oh and I would love to hear from you abt what you thought of my version of Gringotts... send me a few words if you can. **_

_**Reviews are like drops of Felix Felicis... so please don't hesitate to click that pretty blue button below. :)**_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Hi there!... Back again with one more chapter for you guys. Hope you enjoy this one too. I know, I know... the story's been moving at almost snail's pace till now, but once we get all the pesky pre-Hogwarts details sorted out, things'll move along faster... promise.**_

_**Please don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas on the development of this story... we would love to hear from you.**_

_**Oh and one more thing before i forget... will the person who reviewed as ElvenKingSlave please give me a way to contact them? I would love to have the opportunity to chat with you... :)  
**_

_**MB  
**_

* * *

**Chapter 7**

Walking back from the vaults to Chief Ragnok's office slowly, Harry tried to process the information he'd gotten from his mum. Most of it was still unknown to him as the time for it's usage had not come. But what he did know, was in itself quite impressive. He now had a basic idea of all of his first year syllabus at Hogwarts... obviously, he would need to attend the classes and study by himself, but he wasn't as clueless about the subject matter now, as he would've been had he not had the codex inside his mind. It was so cleverly made, that it only served to help Harry understand points that he didn't, without either outright giving him the answers.

He was still quite disoriented by the whole experience, when he stepped up to the solid gold doors that marked Ragnok's offices. The doors opened by themselves, and a preoccupied Harry didn't even stop to wonder about it before he walked in, heading straight for the grouping of chairs that held the Goblin chief and his newly discovered godparents. He also didn't pay attention to the fact that even though he didn't really see her, he somehow knew exactly where Hermione was and that she might've been feeling a bit unsettled about something.

"Ah... there you are Harry. We were just talking about you. Did you find what you were looking for in your mother's vault?"

Still a bit overwhelmed from the experience of seeing his dead mother as a hologram after almost a decade, Harry just nodded before almost collapsing into the chair next to the Grangers and across from Ragnok. He didn't react when Hermione slid into the chair next to his quietly, her expression one of slight frustration mixed with curiosity. The eleven year old was in fact, pretty much unaware of everything till he heard Ragnok clear his throat.

"Harry... and Hermione, there is something we think you should know. It is going to directly affect your lives in the near future and both I and the Grangers feel that it is better you know right now, rather than finding it out by yourselves later on and coming to your own conclusions."

At the uncharacteristically circuitous speech from the Goblin regent, both Harry and Hermione looked at each other silently, before turning as one to the adults, their curiousness and nervousness apparent on their faces.

"What do you know about soul-bonds?"

Though Harry and Hermione had known each other for all of maybe two hours, the adults found it amusing the way he turned to Hermione, as if expecting her to know all the answers. But the most surprising thing for Harry at the moment was that though he subconsciously expected Hermione to know the answers, he found himself feeling a slight niggle inside his brain, something trying to attract his attention rather than making him feel any discomfort. Paying attention to the niggle, opened up a whole bank of knowledge, including information on soul bonds.

So, while it was entirely surprising to the others that the answer to the question came from Harry and not Hermione, Ragnok simply smiled a bit.

"A soul bond is a way of magic letting two people know that their magical abilities are almost perfectly compatible. A soul bond usually develops over age and involves the development of both the emotional and magical cores of the two people involved. Most soul bonded couples are invariably emotionally involved with the other and stay together for the rest of their lives. In some cases where a strong bond exists, bond mates have also exhibited emotional transference."

Harry finished his monologue, to find the rest of them excepting Ragnok, staring at him with their mouths open.

"H..Harry... How did you know that?"

Grinning sunnily at what he now knew had happened, Harry answered pointing to his head

"The Potter codex..."

Before Hermione could bombard him with questions, Harry quickly recounted what had happened at the Evans vault. Dan and Emma were trying to hide their misty eyes by the time he was done, the thought of seeing Lily Potter again on the forefront of their minds. Hermione appeared excited and disappointed at the same time, happy for her friend that he'd gotten such a massive store of knowledge from his family, and disappointed at the same time that she wouldn't be able to have access to it. If there was anything that Hermione loved more than anything else in the world, it was reading and learning new things. The Potter codex however, was a vast store of knowledge she didn't have and couldn't touch.

Seeing her reaction to Harry's recounting, Ragnok smiled and told the girl

"Don't worry Miss Hermione... you might be able to gain knowledge from the Potter codex yet."

"How?"

The question, while having been phrased by Hermione, was as much from Harry as her if his expression was anything to go by.

"If you can recall, a few moments ago, I mentioned soul bonds..."

When the two children nodded, he continued

"Before today, I didn't think that I would see emotional transference happening because of a soul bond in front of me in my lifetime, because it is a rare side effect of the bond that is exhibited only in the case of a very strong bond. But.."

"But what happened to me today while Harry was inside the vault is emotional transference... isn't it? I could feel when he was happy or sad and I also felt that sudden enormous pressure on his brain..."

"... and I could feel that Hermione was a bit anxious and frustrated when I entered the room"

No one had ever even thought about interrupting the Goblin king in his lifetime, but now as the two incredibly special children in front of him unconsciously took up the tale as they tried to understand what was going on in their lives, Ragnok only raised his eyebrow in an amused fashion before shaking his head at the already apparent effects of the bond.

As he knew, the soul bond would only affect them in certain ways for some time now. They might be able to understand each other's thought processes better, ascertain each other's underlying emotions in a clearer manner and maybe communicate in a manner that two people who'd known each other only for a few hours wouldn't be able to. As they matured, as their bodies and magical cores grew, their bond too would grow. While it might not affect their decision making capabilities about other people, Ragnok could however, no see the two of them considering spending their life with someone other than their bonded mate, even now... so good was their sync, even this close to realizing the existence of a bond.

There was a long and heavy silence as everyone in the room tried to take in all that had happened in the last hour, things that had changed all their lives so much. The most obvious reactions came from the children who couldn't even look at each other for a couple of minutes without blushing like tomatoes. It was Hermione's curiosity that first overcame her shyness and led to the girl asking the Goblin king more details about the soul bond which even Harry, with his Potter codex might not have known or revealed. Though she wasn't able to get too much more from the reticent goblin chief, it had succeeded in getting rid of the giant pink elephant in the room and just for that, Harry felt like giving her a bear hug.

Both Harry and Hermione were bright enough to know that they were not being told a lot of things when it came to their soul bond. But they also knew that all the adults present there wanted only what was best for them and they were willing to wait for Hermione's parents and Ragnok to disclose whatever they hadn't previously, when the right time came. As long as it didn't affect their decision making capabilities and didn't force them into anything, both the children were quite okay with being soul bonded with their first friend. While the adults knew that both Harry and Hermione didn't quite understand the implications of a soul bond yet, they let the children be, knowing that burdening them with too much information right then, might make them panic. By then, Harry had another little thing to ask of the Goblin chief, something that ended up being not such a little thing after all...

"Umm... Chief Ragnok, when I was at the vault, my mum... er.. her memory told me to ask you to make sure I got to see a healer while I was here... something about not having to wear glasses"

Harry looked almost embarrassed to be making this request of Ragnok, but he knew that he would have to undergo the exam. Mainly because it had been his mum's idea and also, he was eager to know if he would still have to wear his glasses. At Ragnok's silent nod, a young goblin came into the office and bowing low to the king and his guests, gestured the humans to follow him

"Go and have a meeting with my finest healers Mr. Potter. We will have some more things to discuss and finalize when you get back from the check-up, before we can bring your accounts up to speed"

With a slight bow from all the humans involved and a regal nod of the head from the head of the goblin nation, the small contingent was off, down straight, long corridors of the blackest onyx flanked on both sides by ornate pillars and solid gold doors that opened out into the corridor. They must have passed almost a dozen such identical doors before the young goblin stopped in front of one of them and knocked on it. Bowing slightly to the human customers when the doors opened, the young goblin told them that Lord Ragnok's best goblin healers would attend to them and saying so, turned on his heel and walked back the way they had come.

With nothing better to do, the Grangers and Harry stepped into the room to find themselves in a large chamber that was painted a peaceful pale blue and light yellow. There were a couple of desks to the side, but most of the room was taken up by four screened off areas. One such screen parted when the humans stepped in, revealing an examining area behind it, complete with a comfortable looking bed, a small stool and a couch for the rest of them to sit in. There were also a whole trolley full of shiny instruments the sight of which sent an involuntary shudder through Harry. There was also a goblin clad in a goblin version of surgical scrubs in off-white, who came forward to the group

"Well met humans. I am Healer Barfang and I will be assisting you today."

The humans all bowed to the goblin, who seemed a bit bemused before he too bowed to them slightly

"Well met Healer Barfang. I am Harry Potter and these are my friends Doctors Granger and their daughter Hermione."

Harry had felt that introducing the Granger parents using their work titles was the thing to do here as they were amidst healers, which was the goblin and wizard equivalent of a non-magical doctor. As expected by the young wizard, Healer Barfang's eyes widened slightly at the mention of the the word Doctor and he curiously turned to the taller man standing in front of him

"You are doctors?..."

While Dan Granger hadn't thought he would be in the spotlight at the Goblin's bank and was taken aback at being addressed by the healer as a result, he rose up to the occasion and answered

"Yes healer... Both me and my wife are dentists. The human versions of tooth er... healers"

A gleam of understanding and respect shone in the goblin healer's eyes before he nodded

"Ah... yes. King Ragnok has already informed me that a complete medical check-up is due for the young wizard here. If you please, follow me to the examination area"

Nervousness clawing at his stomach, Harry silently followed Barfang, the Grangers filing behind him. When they reached the curtain separating the examination area from the rest of the room however, Dan stopped and motioned for Emma and Hermione to do the same.

"Harry... Healer Barfang will want to examine you in peace and I also think you will be a lot less nervous about this if you didn't have people gawking at you... so we'll stay right here till your exam is done. If you need anything, don't hesitate to call, okay?"

The tall man smiled down at the boy in front of him, clapping his shoulder lightly. The gratitude and relief that flooded Harry's face was answer enough for him and he grinned again at the young man, getting a shy but happy smile in return before Harry turned and went behind the curtains.

Hermione and her parents had been waiting outside the curtained off portion of the room for just about two minutes, and the young woman was already prepared for a long wait. Her parents being doctors in the normal world, she knew that complete medical checks, especially when there was no prior record of the patient or if the patient wasn't a regular, could take hours, maybe even the rest of the day. So it was quite surprising to all three humans, when there was a whole minute of complete silence before, with an angry growl, Healer Barfang swept out of the examination room and headed for a desk with all possible haste. The rage displayed on his face and in his voice as he spoke into a communication device that looked faintly like a speakerphone, made the Grangers feel anxious. They couldn't figure out what was going on, but they knew one thing. Something about Harry had made the healer very angry and for the life of them, none of the three could understand what the usually well mannered young man could have done.

Hermione, feeling that maybe something was wrong with Harry, stepped quickly and silently to the other side of the curtain, and promptly wished she hadn't.

Because, on the bed sat Harry Potter, revealing the reason why he wore full sleeved sweatshirts and such baggy pants even in the beginning of August, when the climate was still quite warm. Clad now as he was, in a hospital issue examination gown that was held together down the back and shrunk to fit the young man by magic, they were clearly visible... the multitude of scars and bruises that littered his thin and small body.

* * *

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was a satisfied man. He had returned about two weeks ago from visiting an old friend... rather, someone who had at one point of time been a friend to him - Nicholas Flamel. The 663 year old famous alchemist had at first refused to lend the headmaster a piece of the famed Philosopher's stone, but in the end, the considerably younger Dumbledore had managed to charm a piece out of the alchemist, having obliviated the man a couple of times to achieve that end. After that it had been a simple thing to just put the piece of the stone in a vault that was in a false name and get Hagrid to bring the stone to school later. The satisfaction of having tricked the alchemist out of his Philosopher's stone had given the headmaster enough happiness that he'd decided to take an unscheduled vacation to the south of France.

Albus Dumbledore had learned in his 132 years on the Earth, that there was no right or wrong... only power and those too weak to seek it or safeguard it. He had started out as every other young wizard, full of confidence, hope and a plan for a whole new world. But then, Gellert Grindelwald had happened and made Albus see the true genius he was capable of. While Gellert had been openly rebellious about things he didn't like, Albus had found the cleverness of being able to say one thing while meaning another. Over the years he had learned this skill to such an extent that now, he was able to convince a whole community that his word was the law, without even having to take the effort to make it so.

Gellert, while a good friend in the olden days, had always been brash and confrontational. Albus had learned from his failures and built upon his successes instead, coming out on top in the end, having defeated his best friend. Ever since the day he had defeated Gellert, the whole of magical Britain had fallen at his feet, literally ready to worship the man who had delivered them from great evil. Life had been good for Albus for the next five decades or so... until he'd met one Sybil Trelawney.

The drunk and completely untrustworthy young woman he'd met at the inn for an interview of the position of Professor of Divination at Hogwarts had been the start of his decline. While the lady hadn't even come close to convincing him that she was an honest to goodness seer during the interview, it was when he was preparing to leave that she'd spoken the prophecy that Albus knew would either make or break him.

The prophecy had spoken of Voldemort, and the one who would vanquish him. Someone who was born at the end of July. Albus Dumbledore was a true Leo, having been born in August, but for the sake of the prophecy, he was willing to consider himself as the candidate. After all, Voldemort had been a student of his and would never be able to exceed his teacher. But doubts crept into the headmaster's mind and the thought that the one who would finally vanquish Voldemort could be someone else had taken away any and every possibility of peace for the wizard.

He couldn't let that happen. He was the strongest and most intelligent and knowledgeable of them all and it was his and only his destiny to rule over the magical kingdom of Britain. No one else could be allowed to take that position of power and pride from him... not some stupid dark lord and definitely not some upstart young thing with no experience.

So, he'd started subtly manipulating all the possible candidates of the prophecy, namely the Potters and the Longbottoms. Both the families, along with some of their friends were so easy to manipulate and turn to his way of thinking that it had almost been a laugh for the headmaster. He had plotted and planned his way to making sure that he would be the only one in a position to lead the magical community once more, not caring who or what he sacrificed on the way... in his mind, it was always all for the 'Greater Good'... his greater good of course.

Which was why he had obtained the piece of the Philosopher's stone from Flamel. A few vials of the Elixir of Life would always come in handy and one could never have enough gold in life. Hagrid would probably have left the stone in his office by now and he could get on with brewing the Elixir of Life in peace now that the school was empty and would remain so for another month at least. With these happy thoughts in mind, Albus Dumbledore entered his office in the realm that was solely his, the small kingdom he'd made for himself - Hogwarts.

It wasn't a minute later when a loud curse was heard from the headmaster's office and with a shock wave of magic pulsing through the thankfully empty school, he headed out again, this time through the Floo connection in his office. As the green flames of the floo connection died down in his office, a small piece of paper, that had been the source of his ire fluttered down slowly to the carpet. Written in a crude, childish script, it said

**Profesor Dumbldore Sir,**

**I got Harry from his aunt and uncle's house and took him to Diagon Ally. They don' treat the boy wel, so I've left Harry to stay at the Leeky Couldron for now till you can find out the truth Profesor**

**Yours Sincerly,**

**Rubeus Hagrid**

* * *

_**A/N: So there it is... another chapter done. We introduced the sneaky and manipulative headmaster Dumb-door, as I like to call him, in this chapter and we will also be seeing him extensively in the next... So stay tuned for the next chapter which should be up sometime next week.**_

_**Don't hesitate to review your thoughts and ideas... I probably couldn't express just how much I love hearing from you guys. An addition in the number of reviews for any of my stories means a happy day for me...**_

_**So go ahead... press the blue button and tell me what you thought :)**_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB :)**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Hi guys! Back with another chapter... hope you like this one as much as you seem to have liked the others. We love hearing from you and can't tell you how much your feedback helps us... So please don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas for the fic. **_

_**Now, without any more ado, here's**_

* * *

**Chapter 8**

Albus Dumbledore had been a happy wizard... until just thirty minutes ago. Now, he was a frustrated man. For the life of him, the headmaster of Hogwarts couldn't understand why the tracking charms he had on one Harry James Potter weren't functioning at the moment. In the first flush of anger, he'd flooed out of his office to the Leaky Cauldron, where his not-so-brainy groundskeeper had supposedly left Harry. He'd found from Tom, the owner and barkeeper of the pub and hotel, that Harry was supposed to be in room number 14, but was at the moment out with a muggleborn's family into Diagon Alley.

Tom had no opportunity to ask the Supreme Mugwump and Chief Wizard as to why he was asking after the young wizard, before Dumbledore swirled out to the back of the pub, to the enchanted doorway of the Alley, cursing under his breath all the way. But once he was at the doorway, Albus stopped for a moment and contemplated the situation... his train of thought bringing him back into the pub, this time looking a bit pensive.

"Tom... would you be so kind as to tell me what the mu-"

Whatever the old headmaster was saying was lost in the noise created by a bunch of rowdy young wizards that had just entered the pub and were trooping to a booth at the back, much more quietly after they'd noticed the great and powerful Albus Dumbledore standing there

"I am sorry headmaster, I couldn't hear what you were saying..."

Twinkling blue eyes behind half moon spectacles and a grandfatherly smile greeted the barkeep, and he started to feel oddly relaxed. In a strange, soft voice, Dumbledore asked the question again, this time biting down the term he had been about to use for the young first generation witch or wizard Harry Potter was out with.

"I was asking you whether you got a chance to find out the name of the muggleborn family that young Harry is out with Tom?... It would be tremendously helpful to an old man if I had a name to work with"

The warm blue eyes were twinkling down madly upon the middle aged wizard, making him feel warmer and safer. He knew in his mind that whatever information the headmaster wanted, it would be best to just give it to him. After all, he was the most powerful wizard alive and if you couldn't trust Albus Dumbledore, who could you trust?

And so it was, in a curious monotone, that Tom gave Dumbledore the information he needed.

"It was a family of three... Two parents with a young witch, she was also going to Hogwarts this year. The name is Granger"

It was probably a good thing that by the time Tom snapped out of whatever influence he was under, Dumbledore was already striding away to the enchanted doorway, his wand rapidly tapping the sequence of bricks that would give him access to the magical alley. Because if Tom had been able to see the headmaster's reaction to the mention of the name Granger, he might've thought again about giving the old wizard the name.

* * *

Hermione Granger had never seen something like this in her life... she'd never felt something like this in her entire eleven, almost twelve years on the planet. In fact, she was sure, that she'd never even known that such things, such people existed. Until now. Until this moment, when she looked at the liberally bruised and battered body of her new friend... and maybe something more.

She might've been scarily brilliant at most things, but even then, she was after all a young witch of eleven, at most twelve years old, who'd lived an almost sheltered life with two loving parents and a complete lack of knowledge about physical abuse or even mental abuse till now. But even she could tell that this sort of bruising and scarring wasn't due to carelessness or ineptitude. No... there was too much of it to have been self-inflicted, too widespread to have been the result of one or even a few sessions of physical assaults. No... this almost screamed of regular, over long years, continuous and even planned physical abuse inflicted on a young boy by someone who just couldn't be human. No normal human or even someone with borderline decency could stand for this, certainly not inflict this sort of pain on another, much less a young person like Harry.

She didn't even know who or what had caused all the scars and bruises she was able to see that were not covered by the hospital gown, shuddering at the knowledge that there definitely were more being covered by the garment, but the young witch knew for certain that she hated, absolutely and completely hated the person or people who had done this. The inability to do anything about the situation clawed like an angry beast at her, as she stood there silently, not even trying to stem the tears that were tracking down her face in a continuous, never ending stream. The amount of grief and sadness she felt for her newest friend, which she was trying so hard to keep from exploding out of her in loud, angry sobs, was making her shake.

Hermione fought to keep herself still and stop her from making any noise that might alert Harry to her presence, as she didn't want to make him feel bad about her knowing. She knew that while any of this had definitely not been Harry's fault, he would still blame himself for causing Hermione grief and the others trouble, because that was the kind of person he was. It was all Hermione could do to stop herself from running to him and hugging him, tell him that she was there for him and he would never be alone again, because that was all she felt she could do at the moment. But even as her feet started to move, the young witch knew that it might be better if Harry didn't have to deal with people knowing about his past.

Having grown up in a normal household, with two loving parents, she hadn't even thought about how life could be for children who'd lost wither one or both of their parents. Her life had always been a comfortable one, not extravagant, her parents didn't spoil her or anything, but she'd never wanted for anything. Hermione knew that some children were not as blessed in their family situation as she was, but she'd never even tried to think or learn about any of it. And how she was wishing she had, because at the moment, all she felt was a debilitating sadness that was rapidly turning to anger at being able to do nothing to prevent what had happened to Harry or at least help him in any way.

As her anger at the nameless, faceless people that Harry Potter had been left with since his childhood, grew exponentially with every second that passed, Hermione Granger found something inside her expanding, growing alarmingly, almost suffocating her with the emotions and feelings that were coursing through her young body. What she couldn't see, was that she had started to glow with a white hot aura, her magic visibly swirling around her, sparks and streaks of magic shooting off of her in a golden brown colored localized lightning storm. Her bushy hair was standing on its end as if electrified, which it might've actually been, such was the amount of power pouring off of her. And then Harry turned, squinting at her hard, because he apparently couldn't see anything clearly now that his glasses were off, and she lost it.

* * *

Harry Potter played with the ends of the pale green hospital gown as he sat at the examination table inside the bank's medical quarters. The moment Healer Barfang had told him about the full physical, he knew that this would be the ultimate outcome. He'd been through this whole thing too many times for it not to happen again.

There had been the time Uncle Vernon had broken his arm and run out of the house and collapse on the street, in full sight of the neighborhood gossip three doors down. That was the first time the Dursleys had had to take him to a doctor, even if it was, to only keep up appearances of being utterly normal, respectable people. That time had been a revelation to the five year old Harry James. A young, nice looking nurse had taken care of him, and told him that what the Dursleys did to him was wrong. That was the first time Harry had come to know that not all children were treated like he was.

Again, almost two years after that, he'd literally been beaten to unconsciousness by Dudley and a few of his gang, resulting in another uncomfortable stay in another hospital. This time it had been a doctor that appeared concerned at first, but left Harry as he was when Vernon Dursley threatened him. There had been a couple of occasions after that, once even at the second hand shop where Aunt Petunia had bought him his glasses very unenthusiastically, after his teacher at school had complained quite extensively about his vision or lack of it, and tumbling grades. Over and over, he'd been told by people that he wasn't being treated properly, but no one it seemed had the guts to do something about it, because no one ever did.

Of course, he'd wondered about their treatment of Dudley and come to the conclusion that it was because Harry wasn't their own child. But then Aunt Marge wasn't Dudley's mum, but she too hated Harry with a passion and showered affection and presents on Dudley.

At the end of his contemplation, Harry'd come to the conclusion that maybe something was wrong with him after all, making it impossible for people to like him, much less love him. The impression had been almost solidified in the next six odd years, and it might've stayed etched in his brain, if it hadn't been for one very tall man and a bushy haired young witch.

Hagrid had been the first person who'd shown affection towards Harry without expecting anything in return. By the time he'd met Hagrid however, Harry had come to know that while something was definitely different about him, nothing was actually wrong. It was the Dursleys that had something wrong with them. The nice nurse had told him at five, that he wasn't being treated as he should be, but after a couple of visits, when he'd been taken out of the hospital, he had neither seen or heard from the nurse again.

While it had given Harry an insight into the fact that his treatment wasn't normal, it had also served to lessen his respect for and dependence on adults. He didn't know whether the young nurse couldn't or simply didn't do anything about his situation, but Harry was sure that he would never trust an adult with the control of his life from then on. He would just have to stay out of the line of fire as much as possible while he was at the Dursley's, try to stay out of any trouble, but the moment he felt he was old enough and could live on his own, Harry had planned to leave his aunt, uncle and cousin and never return.

But of course, he'd been pipped to the post by the appearance of the letter from Hogwarts and later, Hagrid. While the magical world was a new opportunity for the young wizard, he knew that here too, people were waiting to take control of him, explained more by what Ragnok had told him just fifteen minutes ago. Thinking about all this and knowing what he did now, Harry had just decided that no matter what, he wouldn't let anyone else, no matter who it was, control him or his life anymore. That was when he started to feel extremely sad and angry at the same time. It was almost as if the feelings were battling for superiority inside him, making something inside him expand almost uncontrollably. Harry tried to tamp down on the feeling, succeeding partially, before it went out of his control.

This puzzled him quite a bit, before he remembered the soul bond thing that Ragnok had explained... or rather he himself had explained. If he was feeling sad and angry at the moment without any good reason, that meant Hermione was feeling these emotions quite strongly at the same moment. Also, something behind him started to glow, sending his shadow careening off the walls in front of him and Harry, unable to contain his curiosity, turned and squinted at the indistinct blur that he was sure was Hermione Granger standing not four feet away from him. He hadn't remembered that he wasn't wearing his glasses at the moment and had to squint quite hard to see even the blur he was seeing. But even he, half blind as he was, could see that she was surrounded by a white aura, with sparks and streaks of golden brown magic shooting off of her haphazardly.

The penny dropped, as Harry realized that Hermione had seen the bruising and scarring on his body. He'd expected her to be scared and disgusted, but that wasn't what he felt almost rolling off of her in waves. No... this was definitely anger and sadness and a liberal dosage of guilt that he couldn't quite understand. Because he knew that she hadn't known about this till this moment and couldn't have done anything even if she had. After all, she was but a kid like him and by now he knew that no one, absolutely no one other than himself could take him out of his current living situation with the Dursleys. He could only hope that he remained alive till his was old enough to move out on his own. Another thought struck him... this about the Potter properties and the money that he now seemed to have, according to Ragnok and a sudden gladness filled his heart as he contemplated leaving the Dursleys earlier than he'd planned.

But thought had to remain unfinished and uncherished, as Hermione chose that exact moment to literally explode with magic. Harry could only watch open mouthed, as the young witch in front of him let loose a tidal wave of magic, her emotions finally going out of her control. The wave of magic felt surprisingly like a comfortable, warm blanket as it rolled over him but somehow, Harry knew that that wasn't going to be it's effect on everyone else. How he knew that he couldn't say... maybe it was the Potter codex working automatically or it could be his bond with Hermione. Either way, now Hermione knew and if her expression was anything to go by, a lot of people would be knowing of his past very soon, and a lot of people were going to be very inconvenienced. The first part due to him, the second, entirely due to Hermione and her wave of angry magic.

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was liberally cursing under his breath as he stepped out of the enchanted entrance to the magical shopping center that was Diagon Alley. He barely noticed the people stopping to stare at him or offer him their salutations respectfully, he was past all that today. The last piece of information that he'd tooled from Tom's mind, the name of the Granger family had made something inside his devious brain click and his temper had gone through the roof.

All Hagrid had to do was take the damn boy out of Privet Drive and get him to the safety of Hogwarts and bring him under his control. The dumb half giant wasn't supposed to get to Harry till two days before the term started, the damn letter wasn't supposed to be delivered to him by the Hogwarts automatic addressing system, he'd actually seen to it. But apparently, Harry James Potter had not only received his letter earlier than usual, Hagrid had also been unable to restrain himself from visiting the boy earlier than he, the headmaster had planned.

This had of course resulted in utter and complete chaos, with Hagrid leaving Harry unsupervised at the magical pub while he himself returned to Hogwarts. It was in fact quite surprising to Albus that Harry was still staying where Hagrid had left him. He'd half expected the boy to have run away, but apparently, there was still something to be said for children's belief in magic and it's ability to make everything right.

But again, fate had thrown the headmaster another curve ball by having Harry Potter meet the one mud- muggleborn family he really shouldn't have. There was no way Albus could stop Hermione Granger from getting her introduction to magic and coming to Hogwarts, at least not without a good bit of suspicion falling on him, but he'd had no ideas of letting the young Miss Granger have anything to do with Harry Potter while they were in the school that he controlled. Harry would be surrounded by people who would help Dumbledore keep him under control, keep his natural abilities, if he had any, hidden and make sure the boy was ready to sacrifice himself for the supposed 'Greater Good', when the time came. A time, that would of course be orchestrated by him, the greatest wizard ever born, the man who was creating the stage for the biggest chess game the magical world had ever seen.

A chess game that involved Tom Riddle being the Black King, while he himself took the mantle of the white ruler, Harry James Potter being told that he was an important knight, while in reality, all he would be, was a pawn that could be sacrificed when the time came, so that the Black King would be in the right position for the forces of light, or as he envisioned it, Dumbledore's army, could take him down, giving Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore the mantle of the savior of the magical world once again, allowing him to rule over his numerous subjects the way he liked, allowing him to shape the British magical society the way he wanted, for a long, long time to come. Especially now that he had the means to making the Elixir of Life.

But all those careful and grandiose plans had been jeopardized by a ruddy rook of a Hagrid, just because the Dursleys were slapping the boy around a bit. Something the great Albus Dumbledore found himself wanting to do to both the half giant as well as the absent Boy-Who-Lived when he found them. And this had to be something of a joke because left on his own, who does the boy meet the next day? The one bloody family that he had history with, the one group of people who might know the truth about Harry's past, the one damn name that could make all his carefully laid plans go to waste... The Grangers.

As the frustrated and angry Albus Dumbledore strode deeper into the alley, trying to latch onto anything that felt like the Potter boy's magical signature, he unfortunately didn't feel the immense wave of magic that was rushing towards him before it was too late to even think of the shield spell. Not that it would've helped. The wave of magic was so strong, that even the strongest shield that Dumbledore might've been able to put up, would've crumbled like dry sand in front of it... and it was a blessed fact that he didn't know. Because like every other witch or wizard in Diagon Alley at the moment, he was lying on the ground, unconscious.

* * *

_**A/N: **_

_**So there it is... another chapter all done. **_

_**And yeah, a little clarification if I may, Hermione's angry magic affected only witches and wizards and it was protecting Harry so he felt it like he did. No goblins or humans were harmed by it. Bet Albus gets up with a doozy of a headache... hehe (vbeg) But that's the story for another chapter.**_

_**We love hearing from you and incorporating your feedback into the development of our story, so please don't hesitate to click the little blue button below and leave us your thoughts and ideas. And stay tuned for the next chapter which should be up in a week's time.**_

_**Oh and before I forget, EAS is gonna be done with her exams in about two weeks, so we can expect some amazing stuff from her once she finishes those... Can't wait!**_

_**Lotsa luv and cookies**_

_**MB and EAS**_


End file.
